Tell No One - To Watch This Movie

Eight years ago, Alexandre Beck was knocked unconscious and was unable to stop his wife Margot from being murdered by a serial killer. Initially thought to be the prime suspect, the case has been long closed and he's done his best to move on, focusing on his career as a pediatrician. Suddenly, his life is turned upside down when two long-buried bodies are found in the woods near the site of his wife's death and the police find clues that lead them to suspect Alexandre. Also, he beings receiving mysterious e-mails which direct him to a link showing security cameras displaying his now-alive wife. Thus begins two hours of non-stop, frantic, suspenseful awesomeness, that unfortunately becomes a boring, unbelievable mess by the last half of the film.

We don't hear too much about foreign films unless they are spectacular and if they're too spectacular, Hollywood decides that a remake is necessary and that's when I get the urge to watch the original. "Tell No One" was a huge hit in France (Michael Caine believes it to be one of the best films he's ever seen), so it's no surprise Ben Affleck is thinking about making a remake as his next directorial project.

I knew this was a thriller, but I was pleasantly surprised by the first section of "Tell No One" which is straightforward look into how grief can effect the rest of a man's life. After a brief introduction showing the death of Margot, we meet Alexandre Beck in the present watching him go along with his life as well as he can, despite losing the love of his life in a brutal manner. Francois Cluzet as Alexandre does a masterful job of changing his body language in subtle ways, in order to convey the passage of time and differences to Alexandre's pre and post murder behavior. There is an utterly fantastic montage that begins with Alexandre reminiscing about meeting Margot as children and then moves onto their wedding, but then slowly starts to include scenes from Margot's funeral as well. I'm not an emotional guy, but this was very effective and gets the audience immediately on Alexandre's side. At this point in the film, I was also very impressed with its use of flashbacks, with them filling in the blanks in a believable and interesting manner. Even when the thriller aspects ramp up, the following surprises are smart and make sense when compared to what we already know. Then things seriously start to go off the cliff.

Slowly at first, with "Tell No One" becoming a copy of "The Fugitive" when Alexandre goes on the run from the police who now believe he's a mass murderer. This is a result of meddling by my least favorite plot device, the "shadowy organization" that has something to do with Margot's death and is now following Alexandre after finding out Margot may be alive. They frame Alexandre for the murder of one of Margot's friends and soon Alexandre is leading the police on a foot-chase on a freeway and hiding out with a local thug whose kid he once operated on. At this point, I was becoming frustrated, but was still interested in finding out what was actually going on. And at least the action scenes are well done (with moments that also bring to mind "Homeland" and "Taken"), but just like "Headhunters", "Tell No One" sets us up with a quality film and then decides to throw that all away for something that has been done a million times before. And then it gets awful.

I like "Law And Order SVU" when I've got nothing to do all week and can just crash and watch Netflix twenty-four/seven, but I've never thought that it was blow away television. I bet Michael Caine has never seen "SVU" so he found the final plot twists here incredibly satisfying, but after two hours of a racing, suspense film, I'm offended that the makers of this film decided to wrap things up as a simple pedophile revenge story. Mentioning a character in passing ninety minutes earlier, with no mention of their relationship to the murdered woman or what crimes they may have committed is not foreshadowing. It's lazy writing and is not satisfying in the least.

If you read my notes (and boy is it hard writing down notes while watching a foreign film (subtitles)), you'll see that for the first half I thought I was watching a five star movie, but by the end I HATED it. I literally wrote down things like "No stupid surprises" and then had to cross them out one hour later. When a film sets up mysterious circumstances they don't necessarily have to explain them, but if they decide to, I'd appreciate the explanation making some sense in the context of what we've just spent over two hours watching. I wanted to like this film, but "Tell No One" made it so hard to do so. At the same time, I do somewhat recommend it because parts of it are spectacular. Unfortunately, there are so many wrong turns that by the end "Tell No One" is lucky to be at least an average movie.

Rating - 2.5 out of 5 stars

Random Thoughts -

I was all ready to write some thoughts on how foreign films always seem to be awesome because we only hear about them if they're of amazing quality, but that doesn't seem appropriate right now. I will say that I wish American film studios would try and market the original version of these films to the general public as blockbusters or something rather than just remake them so they're easier to swallow for the American audience. There is literally no reason "Let The Right One In" had to be remade into a less interesting, less intelligent copy. But, I actually bet that Affleck will be able to make "Tell No One" better. Hopefully.

I really, really, really, really wish I could be interrogated by cops who think I committed a crime. If I actually did, I wouldn't be able to lie convincingly, but if I actually had no idea what they were talking about, I feel like I'd have so much fun arguing with them. Same thing if I was on trial in a courtroom. I wouldn't be able to stop myself from reacting to testimonies and witnesses and all that jazz. I go through life yearning to have to defend myself from what I consider unjust treatment, but unfortunately nothing ever gets that far and I'd feel stupid blowing up over some trivial arguement.

The opening scene is Margot and Alexandre in happier times at dinner with friends, with Otis Redding's version of "For Your Precious Love" playing in the background. Because I wasn't sure what I was hearing at first and Redding's voice is kind of gravelly, I thought I was hearing some French dude sing "Unchained Melody".

Every movie I've recently watched has had at least some nudity in it. Except "The Iron Giant" I think. I'm not complaining because it sure is a nice bonus, but you'd almost get the sense people have been OK walking around naked in public for the past forty years so.

I'm gonna start keeping track of actresses and roles I find especially attractive. In "The Last Picture Show", Ellen Burstyn is like prime Catherine Zeta-Jones levels of smoldering hotness and here Kristen Scott Thomas is again surprisingly ravishing.

Next - "Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World", late Friday the 9th.