Tell No One

"Tell No One"
Guillaume Canet, 2006

This film is a puzzle. Its plot, centering around a doctor who tries to figure out why his wife was murdered eight years prior, is intricately laid out. The film's pacing is both patient and efficient, and the director, Guillaume Canet, refrains from giving us any easy answers. His camera focuses on the little moments in order to slowly excavate his characters - there is a very brief shot of a waitress' bottom, followed by a reaction shot of one of our protagonist's friends staring at it, for example.

Unlike most puzzles, though, this unusually compelling thriller is a lot of fun to piece together. The actor, Francois Cluzet, working with all the tools that Canet gives him, delivers a wonderful performance of an ordinary man who is thrust into appalling situations. His character, Dr. Beck, tries to put the murder of his wife behind him, but something keeps holding him back. Every year, on the anniversary of her death, he visits his parents-in-law, which is always an awkward event. But the eighth anniversary is different; two bodies, presumably of the people who murdered his wife, are discovered nearby. The police reopen the case, and Dr. Beck, once again, becomes their prime suspect.

All of Dr. Beck's frustrations build until finally, when the police decide to arrest him, he simply runs away on foot. In most films, such chase sequences are clumsily-constructed, and they ultimately fail because they are, in the end, excuses for loud, action setpieces. This sequence is certainly an action-oriented setpiece, but it is anything but clumsy in its execution. Canet's edits are clean, and his use of sound is spare and devastating; all the while, his camera doggedly tracks our protagonist's every step. Never before have I empathized with a character, trying to flee both from his pursuers and from the ghosts of his own past, so much in the midst of a chase.

Unfortunately, the film takes the relatively easy way out during its ending. One of the characters reveals almost everything to Dr. Beck; it is all some sort of conspiracy involving political figures we hardly meet during our adventure. For a film that meticulously constructed everything up to this moment, layering clue upon clue perfectly, it is disappointing that Canet felt a need to jam everything together awkwardly, right at the crucial moment of our character's ultimate discovery. Nonetheless, "Tell No One" is an enthralling, beautifully-crafted film in which we ourselves become participants and, alongside our characters, attempt to piece together the mystery.

Rating: 8.5

First Viewed: 7/27/08, in 35 mm projection
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