It took me 2 viewings plus careful reading about the movie in Wikipedia until I fully understood the story but in the end it was well worth my time. Not the best ever crime movie but it is a solid one. The plot is tight albeit highly unlikely and kinda artificial.I didn't realize it was a French movie until I saw the chain-smoking pediatrician. Just kiddin'.

this film was based on a novel by Harlan Coben which is among my favorite authors. I didn't aware of this film, so I read the novel before watching the movie. all I can say that the movie had good and bad things side by side. if you read the original novel and then watch the movie you can easily find out that the novel and the characters are more deep than the ones in the movie. after I finished the novel, I was shocked and as I remember, I couldn't forget the movie that I had read!. yes the novel had given me such a great feeling. anyway, the director could work on characters a little bit more. such a complex scenario with complex connections between characters need to be displayed and told a little bit more, so someone without knowledge about the story could understand it. if you think that the movie was great, please consider reading the original book with the same name as the movie by Harlan Coben. He has more than 20 great novels like this, full of mysterious things which make you love him :)

'Tell No One' is a French thriller based on the novel of the same name written by Harlan Coben. It is directed by Guillaume Canet and stars François Cluzet, Marie-Josée Croze, Kristin Scott Thomas and others. Margot and Alex are a happily married couple who have been close to each other since their childhood. But Margot gets abducted and subsequently killed while they were on their annual ritualistic vacation at Lake Charmaine. Eight years after this incident, Alex suddenly starts receiving mysterious e-mails from anonymous sources and a complex mystery follows.When I watched the film, I did it without having the knowledge that it is based on an American crime novel. But while watching it, I noticed that the film has a very American style of storytelling. It is a very fast paced thriller quite reminiscent of the works of David Fincher. It certainly doesn't have the slow, brooding, quality that you tend to associate with European cinema. So after watching it when I became aware of the fact that the source material is an American novel, it made sense to me. I think there is one basic difference between a good thriller and a fantastic one. A good thriller is a film which might not have the most unpredictable storyline, but still manages to keep the viewer enthralled and hooked. But a fantastic/great thriller is one which has a great style of storytelling which keeps the viewer engaged throughout coupled with an unpredictable storyline which keeps the viewer guessing(considering he/she has not read the original book if it is based on one). Without a doubt,as far as I am concerned, 'Tell No One' belongs to the latter category. This film has properly developed characters, the romance between Alex and Margot seemed completely convincing and the intricate details of the storyline holds up even after retrospective analysis which isn't always the case when you're talking thrillers.The primary element of the film is the romance between Alex and Margot. I believed that Alex would not have been able to fully get over Margot after her death, so when things start happening in relation to Margot after 8 years, I completely bought that Alex would jump in and try to get to the bottom of things. I thing unpredictability of human nature is also a theme in the film. You expect certain characters to act in a certain manner, but they turn out to be something completely different.The screenplay and direction has to be admired extensively. When the original story in the novel is as complicated as this, the screenplay becomes essential for making it film-compatible. The combination of the screenplay written by Guillaume Canet and Philippe Lefebvre along with the direction by Guillaume Canet works so well, that the film instead of collapsing due to its complexity,ends up reveling in its complexity. The film beautifully progresses and different layers get peeled off in an organic manner. In many films the ultimate explanation is executed in a forced way. But Canet brilliantly uses this explanation scene in a way which is contextually relevant and plausible. The last shot of the film is very sweet and satisfying. I also loved the cinematography in the film, specially in the forest scenes with the green of the trees and grasses filling up the shots.The acting is absolutely flawless from all concerned. François Cluzet (the Dustin Hoffman lookalike) commands the screen as Alex,the protagonist. Another actor who deserves the special mention is Kristin Scott Thomas. She is British, but she effortlessly plays a French woman and makes it as convincing as ever.The only problem that I have with the film is that there is one chase scene which involves a few set pieces. Now these set pieces are brilliantly shot and directed. But they just felt a little out of place and sort of inconsistent with the mood and the tone of the rest of the film.But apart from that minor reservation, I really loved 'Tell No One'. It is a tightly paced, unpredictable film which keeps the viewer guessing. Hugely Recommended.

Beautifully shot for a thriller. It's even pretty at times. The actors did pretty good except the super eager and dumb deputy and evil politician master mind, the movie tried to break away from the typical thrillers. It's pretty good movie with strong casting. Having Ms. Thomas in the mix is always a plus for me. But over all I think this movie is perhaps a few decades too late - it tried to make the plot complex for the sake of it and ended up contradicting itself, maybe a plot by a committee? (some mentioned the age difference of the leads, the Latin "killer" alive and well, etc). And I don't believe the male lead has anything on Mr. Hoffman. There's only one Hoffman, period. In all, I think the movie is not a masterpiece by design, but ended up pretty good by execution.