Ne le Dis à Personne

It is 3:19 a.m., I have to wake up at 8.30, and I said good night I am going to bed, to my friend on msn before I did come to bed, to watch a movie and to probably fall asleep halfway through it. Instead, I am writing this post now, fully awake and fully stirred up, so much so that I can not wait for the daylight to praise this incredible movie!

About two months ago I had written here that I am not at all thrilled by the genre thriller most of the time and the movie that I was writing about was a dissappointment itself as some of you would remember. This is why my decision was a thriller for tonight, I needed to fall asleep quickly. I do not buy 90% of the mainstream Hollywood thrillers and I definitely am suspicious about the genre's French versions for the extreme use of heavy effects and endless fights to connect the scenes - I am talking about today's generation here -, but I must admit that this young director, young at heart and young at directing, turned this well-written story into a masterpiece.

Alexandre and Margot Beck are a happy couple who had loved each other since childhood. The opening scene is a peaceful dinner party where we meet many of the key characters; it is a life full of love and peace with those loved ones always around. However, this happiness quickly turns into trouble and sorrow, when the couple is attacked one night; as Margot is brutally murdered, Alex stays in coma for 3 weeks. The movie then moves further to 8 years later; Alex is still trying to cope with his wife's death, remembering the exact day that his wife is murdered each year with her parents. I should add here that at around that point, there is a scene about Alex' memories in which the wedding and funeral ceremonies blend within each other with a drunken and depressed Alex' shots seen in between, and that is truly one of the best depictions of loss and sorrow I have seen for a long time.

While he is living a life lost in the usual cliche of life goes on, one day he receives a suspicious e-mail from an anonymous sender; when he clicks on the link in the email, at the exact time it is written to do, he connects to a camera on a street somewhere, and he sees a woman, very much alike Margot, though a little blurry, staring at the camera. The sender also tells on the mail to Alex not to tell anyone (ne le dis à personne), for they are under surveillance. A small series of secret e-mails and two bodies found buried where Margot and Alex had been attacked 8 years earlier, trigger the re-investigation of the case, with new additions, and Alex' life turns to hell as he had been a suspect back then, and he still is, because of some unfortunate details and events. He has to prove that he is innocent, and he has to find the answer to a more important question: Is Margot alive?


The 2006 movie Ne le dis à personne by Guillaume Canet as the director is an adaptation from the novel of the same name by Harlan Coben. You may remember Canet as the leading actor from another, lovely, French movie, Jeux d'Enfants, and his directing is even better. The film starts with an ambience of a truly French touch and the peace of a countryside, and yet once the case starts, it never slows down, though not only visually. The characters, from the minor to the leading, are all so very well analyzed that the story satisfies you in each and every scene. The change of one of the torturers in the book from an oriental male to an ectomorphic white female in the movie, the obsessive compulsive police inspector Eric, and Monsieur Canet himself acting as the most disgusting character in the story are a few of the brilliant points in the casting of the film, and is again, the French touch.


Today, when a movie is labeled as thriller, we expect a twist in the story, for we are now accustommed to such an approach. Ne le dis à personne is no exception of this, it gives you twist after twist, but one especially the least expected and right when you say you no longer expect more. Although there is murder, chasing the unknown, questions, fights etc, in the center of the movie, there is an incredibly deep love, and it is depicted in such a way that noone can say they are not taken by it. It is not just a simple story with a home and dry setup, but is a deeper sense and feeling as a whole; hence, you may see it again and again although you know the answers to all the questions, which is a contradiction to the realities of many thriller movies. And I must add, what a brilliant actor François Cluzet is; the end certainly sent chills down my spine.


Tonight, I have surprisingly found an almost treasure, something like a personal connection. I could even stand the annoying face of Kristin Scott Thomas. I could not be happier not to have slept right after my good night message on msn.