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Tell No One (2006)

Director: Guillaume Canet

Time Out rating

Average user rating

12 reviews

Movie review

From Time Out London

French actor-turned-director Guillaume Canet had a big hit in France with this widescreen, big-budget adaptation of US writer Harlan Coben’s best-selling thriller. As the film veers violently from housebound, bourgeois psychological thriller – with locations in Rambouillet and Lake Charmaine – to urban action adventure and back again, it certainly makes its main actor, François Cluzet, jump though all the acting hoops. As the widowed paediatrician whom the police supect of involvement in his wife’s savage murder eight years earlier, he does well to retain the composure and air of Hitchcockian ambivalence necessary to cast shadows of doubt in the audience’s mind. Cluzet certainly shows better heels and stamina than Tom Cruise as he sprints through the markets and motorways of suburban Paris trying to evade both the police and mystery assailants as he pursues his hunt for a mystery woman who may or may not be his dead wife. In the way these things go, the film’s very implausibilities – would tough, urban locals really help such a man? – aid its enjoyment. But the surfeit of plot twists and turns become progressively confusing and redundant. Compensation comes with some fruity cameos – notably from Kristin Scott Thomas’s lesbian helpmeet and Jean Rochefort’s supremely unhelpful local toff – presenting reassuring caricatures of the kind that used to grace and brighten ‘Inspector Morse’. It’s ably if not inspirationally directed and Christophe Offenstein’s fluid camera tracks the action well enough, but any pretence to subtlety or sophistication seems lost in translation.

Author: Wally Hammond 2007-06-12 10:20:05

Time Out London Issue 1921: June 13-19 2007

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User reviews of this film

Pat said...

Posted on May 08 2009 10:54 Michael Caine recommended this on the radio the other day and so I got it from Lovefilm. I thought it was brilliant and as someone says above so much better than Tom Cruise

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maggie said...

Posted on Feb 18 2009 12:21 A good, enjoyable action/thriller. Not the best film I've ever seen but certainly well worth watching. The plot is implausible but, hey, who cares. It does demand a basic level of intelligence and literacy. If you have difficulty reading subtitles then don't bother; it will be too confusing for you.

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dr charmaine said...

Posted on Feb 04 2008 14:52 loved this film but wondering if there really is a lake charmaine in france. I know there is one in texas which is where the author used to go. I'm interested as my name is charmaine. glad if someone could fill me in.

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Technoguy said...

Posted on Oct 26 2007 13:05 An excellent fast paced thriller based on an American novel transplanted to France motored by a moving love story. The central character acts like a young Dustin Hoffman in his Marathon Man period. The plot if looked at in the cold light of day is too implausible, has too many twists and turns to convince. When is a dead person dead? when it is proved beyond the shadow of a doubt.Many shadows are thrown across Alexander Beck's path. He believes through mystery emails, she is alive. However the cops and shadowy gangsters (in pay to an unscrupulous owner of horse stables) are moving in and pursuing our erstwhile hero.What makes the action more gripping, the character more moving is the film is brilliantly edited and directed with good background music, shot in good urban and countryside locations. You may have to watch it twice with a notepad for the names of different characters and where they fit in the story to benefit.

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Dennis said...

Posted on Aug 05 2007 20:29 Very disappointing. Reminded me of Angela Lansbury's daytime TV's 'Murder She Wrote' with its stereotypical characterisations. The main male actor is wooden. I couldn't have cared less about him. The film did pick up in the middle but ended how it began - with a wimper.

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Derek Debett said...

Posted on Jul 25 2007 23:48 If you scrutinise the plot too closely of course it'll fall apart - but overlook that and just enjoy it. This is another one they'll be re-making for the U.S. market. And the main actor does look like the abandoned love child of Dustin Hoffman and Peter Mandelson !....

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Leigh Marsden said...

Posted on Jul 11 2007 23:02 Having read the book by chance some years ago, I rated it as the best book I have yet read... and Harlen Coben became a must read, albeit that his other books, for me weren't as good. I recall saying that someone should make it into a film and all those to whom the book was passed agreed.
The British film industry missed a golden opportunity to show the Americans how to make a plausible "Mission Impossible"-type film that, despite being sub-titled, was a gripping interpretation of the book with some additional side-issues thrown in (gangsta mates to the Doc.) Thoroughly enjoyable. The main character so reminded me of a young Dustin Hoffman. All played their roles well, the effects were good and not OTT. In short, well worth seeing. Now go read the book... and pass it on!

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Zoe said...

Posted on Jul 09 2007 19:08 What a fantastic movie! Loved every minute of it. Went beyond all my expectations as it was beautifully shot and very well acted. I also thought the soundtrack was brilliant and i left the cinema on such a high.

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Rachael said...

Posted on Jul 04 2007 12:06 What a fantastic film, definitely the best thing on at the cinema just now, indeed for a long time.

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Chendu said...

Posted on Jul 04 2007 07:29 in a summer of bland, dull superhero flicks, anything would be refrshing and this film was indeed that. it actually gripped me from start to fininsh and despite being a tad confusing for a while during the middle, seemd to gel together quite well leaving one with a satisfied feeling on leaving the cinema. also came fully equipped with believable acting, effortless rather than without effort. an enjoyable film.

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Kriss said...

Posted on Jul 02 2007 11:30 Woow the film is amazing!!

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geoff said...

Posted on Jul 01 2007 17:00 Tres bon film, scénario complex mais réaliste , bien realisé et tres bon casting.. Un ageable moment de cinema. A voir.

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