WJMill Reviews: Tell No One (Ne Le Dis à Personne)

A great murder mystery movie has a solid plot with lots of twists that knock the viewer flat on their backs when revealed. Please excuse me as I pick myself up from Tell No One (Ne le dis à personne), a French murder mystery with so many twists it will make your head spin. As a reviewer with little to no French Film watching experience, I won't try to compare this movie to other French films, as my perception of French film genres are that of stereotypical Paris romances and film noir only because noir is French for black. I will, however, compare this film to other murder mysteries as a top-notch addition to the genre.

Alexandre (François Cluzet) and Margot (Marie-Josée Croze) are a seemingly happy couple, just enjoying life and starting theirs out as a married pair. But when they decide to take a midnight swim in a nearby lake, it proves the last time they would see each other. Margot is murdered by an unknown assailant, presumed to be a serial killer who targets women and leaves the body with corpses of dogs and cats. Alexandre while trying to get to her is knocked unconscious, falling into the lake. Alexandre is later found lying on the pier, still alive. Waking up in the hospital, Alex finds himself wifeless, a suspect of murder and unknowingly thrown in the middle of a much bigger mess. The problems begin when eight years later, on the anniversary of Margot's death, he recieves an email from an anonymous sender linking him to an uploaded video of a street surveillance camera showing Margot appearing alive and well. The journey begins to find his wife with the help of his best friend, Hélène, a resident lesbian with a snarky 'tude. Alex reels through police chases, meetings with thugs, and a web of Margot's own making to find her again. He is warned to 'tell no one' about the sighting of his dead wife or the consequences would be fatal.

To be honest, when I started this movie, I didn't expect much from it. I was blown away by the plot twists and how strong the conviction of a assumed widower to find his lost wife can be. Tell No One exceeded my expectations as a murder mystery and had me saying 'What a twist!' almost more than a Shyamalan flick. There was one thing I couldn't get over though: François Cluzet looks almost exactly like a younger Dennis Hoffman. Take a look at this man and tell me you don't think that. That was probably the only thing that kept me hooked through the beginning until the film got more interesting.

I'm giving Tell No One two and a half stars out of four because although the twists were great and unexpected, the film dragged in some places and took a while to get me really interested. I would reccommend you watch Tell No One and judge for yourself.