Tell No One | Screen | Pittsburgh | Pittsburgh City Paper

Tell No One

French thriller starts strong, but can't conquer complicated plotting

Guilliaume Canet's thriller lays the groundwork for a taut Hitchcockian exercise, dressed up with an all-star French cast. For some time, Tell No One is reminiscent of those classics, in which a seemingly innocent man finds himself accused and on the run, and forced to take the law into his own hands. Eight years after his wife was murdered, a Paris pediatrician Dr. Beck (Francois Cluzet) thinks he is now receiving e-mails from her. As sure as graves can be dug up, family and colleagues start acting peculiar, there are other deaths, and "facts" about the long-ago murder begin unraveling. It's not a bad mystery, and throughout much the film, director Canet keeps the increasingly complicated plot well juggled. (He also stages a cracking foot-chase.) But eventually, the film splinters into too many subplots -- and even drops its central query: Did Beck murder his wife? Any earlier tensions drain away, particularly during the last reel's lengthy expository monologue. In French, with subtitles. Starts Fri., Aug. 22. Manor, SouthSide Works (AH)