Tell No One

Tell No One, the new French thriller by Guillaume Canet, plays like a Jason Bourne movie with a doctor in the lead role instead of an assassin.  It is comprised chiefly of action sequences alternating with labyrinthine blocks of plot-related dialogue in which a lot of names are mentioned and secrets on top of secrets are revealed.  This is one of those onion movies where no matter how many layers you peel away, there's still more in store for you.  I'm not even sure I reached the center by the end, and I was still talking about it on the way to the parking garage.

Alex Beck (played by Francois Cluzet) and Margot Beck (played by Marie-Josee Croze) are a married couple who have been in love since they were children and their families had summer cottages around the same lake.  They carved their initials into a tree - M + A - and revisited it each year to carve another dash in to represent how long they have been in love.  As the film opens, they are on their way to the lake to add another dash.  

Afterward visiting the tree, they go for a midnight swim to a raft anchored in the center of the lake, and after a brief argument, Margot swims to shore and Alex is left staring up at the stars.  Then, he hears Margot scream and call for help, and when he swims to shore, he is struck unconscious and collapses in the water.  

At this point, the film cuts to eight years later, and we find out that Margot was found dead - the apparent victim of a serial killer who has since been tried and sentenced - and that Alex had been in a coma for three days before recovering, that he was a suspect in the murder, and that he is now a pediatrician living in Paris.  He has not remarried.  He is still in mourning.

It is at this point that you have to start paying attention, because a lot of characters are introduced, a lot of names are mentioned, and a lot of things happen one after another, and I'm not going to reveal too much more of the plot, because it's kind of fun if you can keep up with it, whether or not you buy it at the end.

The first complication is that two bodies are discovered buried at the lake near where Margot's murder took place.  At first it is thought that they, too, were victims of the serial killer who murdered Margot and assaulted Alex.  But there are details at the crime scene that arouse suspicion -  a shotgun found buried with one of the victims, a safety deposit box key found in one of the victim's pockets - and the investigation into Margot's murder is reopened with Alex, again, as the prime suspect.

The second complication is that Alex begins to receive cryptic emails that suggest Margot may still be alive.

What could have devolved into a surreal David Lynchian thriller with a murdered wife walking through the background of her husband's pursuit instead develops into a blend of Chinatown and Marathon Man.  That last title I mention not only because its main character spends a large duration of its running time running, but also because Francois Cluzet (who plays the protagonist, Alex) resembles Dustin Hoffman to such an extent that I found myself thinking of him as Dustin Hoffman.

At any rate, Alex finds himself on the run not only from the police, but from various gangsters and bad guys who have their own motivations for silencing him, and he must not only clear his name, but discover the truth of what happened on the night his wife was supposedly murdered, and sift through the various sordid histories of those around him - family and friends - who are not what they seem.  Everyone in Tell No One is a Janus, including, apparently, his wife, and soon, the only ones Alex can trust are a gangster from his past and the very policeman at the head of his pursuit.

The action sequences in this film are so well done, they are on a level with the Bourne films.  There is a foot chase that begins with Alex leaping out a window onto a parked car and being chased for what seems like three or four miles through city streets, and just when you think it's over - when Alex escapes his pursuers by crossing a busy highway lane by lane like Frogger - it just starts up again on the other side.  What is spectacular about this chase - besides the excellent camerawork, which must have had its operators panting for breath - is that Cluzet seems to have done all of the stunts himself.  Not for one instant did I believe it was anyone but Cluzet tripping and falling and picking himself up, and it dropped me right in the center of the action.  This is believability on a scale that Hollywood is all but incapable of, with their high-priced stars doing green screen and being composited into the action.  There is a point in this scene where a multiple car pile up occurs right over Cluzet's shoulder, and I could not spot the wizard behind the curtain.  It appeared as if Cluzet was really there.

The action sequences and the believability of Cluzet's performance are the main reasons for seeing this film.  The plot, however, is so heedlessly convoluted, it may become an obstruction for you just as it was for me.  After awhile, I gave up keeping track of the names and characters, figuring it would all be spelled out in the end by a talking killer.  And, in a way, it was, but even what the killer said is revealed to be deceiving, so the movie had no choice but to continue.  And continue.  Before finally ending.