- Location: Landmark E-Street Cinema
- I'm not usually one to force awkward sports analogies, but on the last day of the 2008 Summer Olympics I feel completely justified in claiming that murder mystery plots remind me of gymnastic vaulting. Allow me to explain. You see, the audience fully expects to witness some leaping around, maybe a flip or two, and perhaps even a sudden twist near the end. These feats are occasionally original, but, more often than not, the whole routine is a collection of fairly well-established moves. The overall success of the murder mystery thus depends primarily upon A) the attempted level of difficulty, B) how well these moves are executed in concert, and C) whether or not the plot lands cleanly at the end. I feel like I can wedge a pommel horse reference in here somewhere, but maybe I should just describe how Tell No One landed a perfect 10.
- When we first meet the protagonist Alexandre Beck (Francois Cluzet), it is abundantly clear that he and his wife Margot (Marie-Josee Croze) are completely in love with one another. Considering that they're shown together for only a few minutes of the film, their relationship is surprisingly convincing. When they go frolicking one evening at a family lake, however, Margot is attacked just before Beck is knocked unconscious. Eight years later, the story resumes as Beck, now a practicing pediatrician, is preparing to commemorate his wife's tragic death. He's surrounded by roughly the same group of people, including his sister (Marina Hands), her partner (Kristin Scott Thomas), and even Margot's father (Andre Dussollier), all of whom seem to think Beck should be moving on with his life.
- At this point, a series of surprising events takes place. First, the local gendarme informs Beck that two bodies have been discovered near the lake where his wife was killed. Although Margot's murder was ultimately attributed to a serial killer, it's obvious that the police would not hesitate to use this new discovery to reopen the case. The next big surprise arrives when Beck gets an e-mail that shows recent video footage of someone who looks like Margot, except very much alive. But we know that Margot is dead because we've seen her cremation in flashback, right? Well, sometimes these things can be more complicated than they seem. As the police, led by the determined and precise Inspector Levkowitch (Francois Berleand), continue their investigation, a set of mysterious thugs enters the fray by killing one of Margot's old friends. Of course the last known person to see her alive was Alexandre Beck, who soon finds himself fleeing the police while trying to clear his name. I realize this setup sounds a bit familiar, but at least Richard Kimble had a one-armed man to chase. For most of this film, Beck has no suspects and doesn't even know if his wife is alive!
- As is often the case in mysteries, the last fifteen minutes of the film are spent telling the audience and the police what really happened. This film, however, manipulates the standard ex cathedra explanation in a way that distinguishes Tell No One from its peers. Just when the audience is willing to begrudgingly accept the proffered account of events, we find out that we have been lied to. A brief revelatory flashback miraculously answers all of our prepared plot objections in short order. Suddenly everyone's actions have matching motives, and the entire film ties together perfectly. In a lesser movie, such an ending might have seemed like a gimmick. At the end of a movie brimming with sharp writing, excellent acting, great action sequences, and a clever plot, it's the perfect landing that cinches the gold.
- Okay, I didn't watch the Olympics at all. I was too busy watching movies!
