Tell No One (2006)

It's unusual for a French studio to adapt an American novel (now set in France, with English only in music), but writer Harlan Coben found director Guillaume Canet to understand his work better than correspondents in Hollywood. This might explain why, as French cinema goes, it strikes me as not very strange...almost strangely so. Which does not make it plain.

On a rural outing, protagonist Alex Beck gets beaten into a coma and wakes up to learn that his wife was murdered. A few details make him a suspect, but then the police convict a known serial killer, who doesn't admit to that particular murder. Most of the movie takes place eight years later, by which time Alex, while not exactly happy, seems to have a handle on life...until he's suspected of two more murders. It can't be coincidence that on the same day that he hears this, he receives an anonymous email showing footage of what appears to be his wife alive today. The email warns, "Tell no one. They are watching." Who are they, why are they causing trouble for him and others he cares about, and what can he do to stop them?

As you might have guessed, it reminds me of many an Alfred Hitchcock thriller, what with a man mistakenly accused of murder and having to solve the mystery on his own. One difference is in the amount of on-screen nudity by both genders (in clean contexts). The violence? Maybe too much for Hitchcock, but nothing you haven't seen many times by now. The most disturbing parts involve a stone-faced woman who's an expert in torturing people with her bare hands. (Yes, she's one of "them.")

The mystery's solution gets pretty intricate. Not every viewer is convinced that it all adds up. Some complain that it's not the kind of mystery you can try to solve before the detective does; the revelations simply come blow by blow. I didn't really think about these issues myself. I was just content at the fair lack of predictability.

Nor did I think about the fact that Alex and his wife, though supposed to have been childhood sweethearts, have actors 15 years apart. (I've seen several of the actors before, but only Kristin Scott Thomas rings a bell.)

Oh, and what did Canet understand that Hollywood didn't? That this isn't just a mystery/thriller; it's a love story. In that respect, it retains a poignancy that you don't normally find within the genre. Thanks to this, it's no neo-noir.

I think I'd recommend TNO to a wide variety of viewers. The main criterion is that you have to be ready for a rather grown-up movie, in terms of both R rating and involvement.