Tell No One
After months of hype I was hesitant to finally see this one, but I am glad I did. First of all, the Blu ray of this film is spectacular. Some of the best, most natural looking outdoor scenes I have seen in any Blu Ray release. The opening scenes in at the lake look phenomenal. This is the kind of film that warrants owning a Blu Ray player.
The film itself reminded me quite a bit of The Vanishing. Just as in The Vanishing, a man has lost his wife, and is unable to move on with his life. Trying to talk about the plot of this film would be ridiculous. The basic outline is: A man and his wife are assaulted one evening, and his wife is killed. 8 years later a string of events lead the man, who could never move on with his life, to question the nature of his wife’s death. Twists and turns slowly revel that perhaps his wife’s death was not what everyone has thought it to be, and long kept secrets pave the way to the truth. I have not seen a film that required this much attention in a long time. I am very interested in reading the novel after watching the film, just to see what they had to omit.
Director Guillaume Canet puts forth a great effort, crafting a stylistic film that is just different enough to make an impact and is not over the top in it’s effort to be original. This is meant as a complement to the film. I have seen far to many young directors botch a would be great film in a futile attempt to do something “new”. Wonderful casting aids the film tremendously. François Cluzet’s performance as the perpetually shocked protagonist is one of the films strongest aspects. Fluid pacing and quality cinematography secure this film as a “must see” in my book.
All in all, Tell No One is an excellent thriller: well made, and superbly acted. And once again, I would strongly recommend checking out The Vanishing if you like this film. With Tell No One, Timecrimes, and Slumdog Millionaire all coming to DVD next week people will have plenty to watch
