Ne le dis à personne

Based on the best selling novel by Harlan Coben this is how a thriller should be made. If you thought Jack Bauer had bad days wait till you meet Dr. Alex Beck (played superbly by Francois Cluzet) the film starts with him along with his wife spending sometime by a lake when she and then he are attacked, she is murdered and he is put into a coma. Skip eight years into the future and although never forgetting his wife's memory he has to a certain extent rebuilt his life. Then things start to turn, when two bodies are discovered buried near the lake and certain evidence suggest a link to Alex and the unsolved case of his murdered wife, suddenly it looks like he is in the frame, again. Then Alex begins to receive e-mails from an anonymous source at first but which seem to be coming from his wife, could she still be alive? And if so what the hells been going on? At 2hrs 11mins this isn't by any means a short film but it is handled so well by director Guillaume Canet that not once did I even notice the time, from the moment the story hooks you it never lets go right up to the end. As Alex starts to dig deeper and deeper to try and uncover the truth you are with him all the way discovering things as he does and when the whole thing finally unfolds it really is quite breathtaking. This film for me had everything, a brilliant script, a seasoned cast, twists and turns, Jeff Buckley's 'lilac wine' used to amazing effect (you will know what I mean when you see it) stunning cinematography, complex subplots that never once get too confusing, it truly is one of the most enjoyable and intelligent films I've seen for a long time.

Excellent film. I'd never heard of the book it's based on. The movie does have the kind of complex characters that are more associated with novels than with cinema.

It's Hitchcockian to some extent - its premise is a classic "wrong-man" scenario, with suspense, humour and chase sequences. But the de rigeur romantic element here is, for the most part, tinged with a strange melancholy , and it's this that gives the film such an unusual atmosphere.

Leading man François Cluzet is probably weary of being compared to Dustin Hoffman, but the fact is there is more than a passing resemblance. Nevertheless, Cluzet is very much his own man, and is as good, if not better, than the Hoffman of, say, 'Marathon Man', which inevitably comes to mind as one watches Cluzet taking to his heels in the breathless, breathtaking chase sequence.

Although Cluzet carries the movie, the rest of the cast, which contains a number of very distinguished French actors, is first-rate.

The plot is full of twists and turns, and the story-telling full of time-jumps, so you really need to concentrate. I'll need to get the DVD to check I understood it right.

All in all, it's an excellent edge-of-your-seat thriller: a splendid, somewhat scary, night out at the movies.

This movie is just amazing well scripted,acted with lots of twists. It worked as a slow burner for me with it's long duration. It didn't bore me at all,kept me hooked whole time.

A very good second film for this young director, and in a genre which is not always a "day at the beach" for french directors... I'm not talking about directors like Melville or others of that generation, but for some of Canet's generation which prefer too easily to use sophisticated special effects and endless fights to fill up their scenes. Canet always stays close, very close to his characters and their feelings, and his storyline/plot and gives the audience an excellent humanistic suspense…

The film exists by itself, and doesn't need to be compared to the novel (that I read and liked), because it's transposed in another culture, with different rhythms, variations in the original characters

**** SPOILERS*****

(thanks Mr. Canet for making the psychopath "fingers" killer … a woman ! . Good idea !. And François Berleand, as a police inspector who has a little obsessive-compulsive disorder, and giving yourself the most disgusting part). Excellent choices that add subtle details to the french version.

Two hours of good cinema, good directing of actors, and needless to say that François Cluzet is a great great actor (Gee, brought me to tears at the end, very moving last scene BTW).

An excellent adaptation, well directed, not pretentious ! Canet gets his degree. Congratulations !

This movie is extremely engaging, well-acted, detailed, moving, thrilling, exciting and satisfying to watch. The stakes get higher and higher as the plot unfolds. What is so unexpected is the many facets the film has, it's not told on one-level there is a mixture of comedy and tragedy that is totally charming and believable. There is a great sense of involvement that gets the viewer attached to the characters and the unique situation that presents itself. It's a total roller- coaster of a movie that has you on the edge of your seat. An extraordinary story that is interestingly told. I've never felt the desire to write a comment on a movie before so the fact that I've taken the time to do it says a lot about the power of it's content. I really recommend this film, it takes you on a journey that divulges secrets beautifully as the story unravels. I left the film crying with a mixture of joy and sadness.