ALLAN HUNTER at the Movies

HOLLYWOOD always seems to be appropriating the best aspects of other cultures for their own ends. Even the recent Martin Scorsese Oscar-winner ‘The Departed’ was a remake of the Hong Kong thriller ‘Infernal Affairs’.

It rarely works in the opposite direction, but the French hit ‘Tell No One’ is a notable exception. Based on a novel by American author Harlan Coben, this is the kind of slickly executed, exciting thriller that Hitchcock would have been happy to call his own.

Coben’s bestseller was set in New York but loses nothing in the translation to Paris. Francois Cluzet is on fine form as Alex Beck, a paediatrician who has struggled to rebuild his life after the brutal murder of his wife Margot (Marie-Josee Croze).

Eight years have passed since her death. When two bodies are discovered near the site of her murder, the case is reopened. By strange coincidence, Alex also receives an anonymous e-mail message which taunts him with the possibility that Margot may still be alive.

When the finger of suspicion starts to point in his direction, Alex becomes a marked man, running for his life as the secrets and lies from the past return to haunt him.

Best known for his appearance in ‘The Beach’, actor Guillaume Canet proves to be a talented director, negotiating all the slippery twists and turns of the plot with confidence and bringing out the best in his actors.

Cluzet makes a very sympathetic fugitive, Kristin Scott Thomas is spiky and believable as his restaurateur sister Helene, and a strong French cast includes such old reliables as Andre Dussolier, Jean Rochefort and Nathalie Baye.

If you devour whodunits but always look for something with a little more intelligence and polish, then ‘Tell No One’ is highly recommended.

Nationwide release

Director: Guillaume Canet
Stars: Francois Cluzet, Marie-Josee Croze, Kristin Scott Thomas, Andre Dussolier, Nathalie Baye
Screenwriters: Guillaume Canet, Philippe Lefebvre based on the novel by Harlan Coben
Certificate: 15
Running time: 125 mins
Country: France
Year: 2006

© Allan Hunter, 2007