Directed By: Guillaume Canet
Cast: François Cluzet, Marie‑Josée Croze, Kristin Scott Thomas
Genre: Crime, Drama, Mystery
I happened to read, Harlan Coben’s ‘Tell No One’ prior to watching its movie adaptation. Fast paced and suspenseful with occasional twist and turns, the novel concludes with a deep sensation of empathy with each of the characters. Ultimately a love story tangled in a mystery of murder and suspicion, the novel sets its grade in an ambitious altitude. So it’s not always a big surprise when you finally get to see the rich characters you enjoyed reading and relating yourself with turn out only to be some worn-out hopeless folks running confusing errands on the big screen to accommodate desperately into an intriguing plot nonsensically. It happens most time when a movie is based on a hit novel. The movie has to cater our expectation.
But, Tell No One is more than what I expected of it. Guillaume Canet, the director of the movie not only manages to retain the soul of the novel but also escalates its emotional resonance to a greater length superbly. An exceptional novel is adapted into an even extraordinary movie. The movie has an excellent casting, dexterous direction and a marvelous cinematography. The movie is one step ahead of the novel.
A brief synopsis: Alexandre Beck is accused of murdering his wife Margot, 8-years later when two corpses are discovered in a property belonged to him. More evidences float up to back up the accusation. He gets an anonymous mail claiming to be his dead wife to further exacerbate the commotion. In Beck’s frantic attempt to decipher the mystery of the return of his dead wife, to find her whereabouts, he is dragged into more serious conundrums of kidnapping, thugs and secrets from the past which all put his life at stake. He must find the truth regarding his wife to save his own life and those associated with him before the police arrests him.
Tell No One is layered in multiple levels with sophisticated subplots, minor characters and intertwined ambiguities to establish one strong whodunit story on the apex. Everything connects to the main plot. Whether it is the subplots or minor characters, they all play significant role in consolidating the main plot. The result is a tight and packed thriller with no scenes to discard and makes the narration a bit complicated to follow at times. The mystery unfolds on its own as Beck figures out what happened during the night his wife allegedly murdered by a serial killer. As the undisclosed discloses it takes you to the unexpected route, to more surprises.
And what I loved the most apart from the novel is the way the movie ends. It’s much better and clever than the novel. The novelist himself stated the same opinion. Atop the compelling pursuit of the truth it’s a love story sabotaged by the selfishness of some and resolved by the selflessness of some other. The love chemistry is the factor that gives the movie an emotional undercurrent.
Thrillers of this sort hardly come by. Tell No One is something one doesn't want to ignore. Who? Why? and What? — Though the story becomes a bit predictable near to the end- You will never stop asking yourself these questions throughout the movie. And if you love murder mystery movies with some solid substance and suspense, this is the absolute choice.
