Tell No One

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Tell no one. They're watching.

Tell No One is a 2006 Suspense film from France, based on a novel by Harlan Coben.

Alexandre Beck, a pediatrician, and his wife Margot, are Happily Married, until one night, when, while at the place where they had their First Kiss, are attacked, and Margot is brutally murdered. Eight years later, Alexandre still hasn't been able to get over his wife's death. Then one day, two bodies are found near the place where Margot was murdered, and Alexandre becomes a suspect. Then he receives a mysterious e-mail that seems to suggest Margot is still alive...

Tropes used in Tell No One include:
  • Action Duo: Alexandre, a pediatrician, and Bruno, a gangster, become this when Bruno is the only one Alexandre can turn to for help.
  • Adaptation Distillation: The novel's setting was changed for the movie from New York City to Paris, the characters were changed somewhat (in the novel, Helene was called Shauna and was a super-model), and a couple of plot twists are dropped, but mostly, it's the same plot.
  • All-Star Cast: For fans of French films, this has quite a cast, with Francois Cluzet as Alexandre, plus Marie-Josee Croze, Kristin Scott-Thomas, Jean Rochefort, Nathalie Baye, and Andre Dussolier.
  • Black and Gray Morality: Big time.
  • Bury Your Gays: Averted; neither Anne nor Helene die, or are under any threat.
  • But Not Too Gay: Played with: Anne and Helene don't get as affectionate as Alexandre and Margot were, but they act like a married couple in other ways (Helene even refers to Anne as "my wife"), even fighting like one when Anne reveals she knew about Margot getting beat up by Philippe.
  • Chekhov's Gunman: Bruno.
  • The Danza: Philippe Lefebvre as Lieutenant Philippe Meynard.
  • Determinator: Alexandre, big time.
    • Captain Levkowitch is a milder version of this trope.
  • Earn Your Happy Ending: And how!
  • Flash Back: When Alexandre decides to drown his sorrows, he has a combination of a Happy Flashback and a Troubled Backstory Flashback, as he remembers his wedding, his First Kiss with Margot when they were kids, and her funeral.
  • Genre Savvy: Jacques
  • I Believe That You Believe It: Helene acts this way when Alexandre tells her about the e-mail from Margot...at first. Later, she comes to believe him.
  • I Did What I Had to Do: Jacques
  • Minor Crime Reveals Major Plot: The discovery of the two bodies near where Margot was murdered eventually leads to Margot murdering Philippe after he beat her up, Jacques helping to cover it up, and his complicity with Gilbert Neuville.
  • Odd Couple: Alexandre and Bruno again; the only thing that binds them together is Alexandre not only treats Bruno's son, a hemophiliac, but also intervened on Bruno's behalf with the police, who believed Bruno was abusing his son.
  • Older Cop Younger Cop: Captain Levkowitch and Lieutenant Meynard.
  • Papa Wolf: Bruno and Gilbert. Also, Jacques
  • Plot Twist: Quite a few of them.
  • Product Placement: Mac laptops and Yahoo Mail, though both are connected to the plot.
  • Redemption Equals Death: Jacques
  • The Reveal: Margot was the one who killed Philippe, and Jacques helped cover it up. Also, Philippe molested kids, and Jacques had helped cover that up, including Gilbert having Alexandre's father killed. Oh, and Margot is still alive, and only left the country because Jacques told her Alexandre had been killed.
  • U2: Their music becomes an important plot point: as "With You Without You" plays over the movie, Alexandre remembers he and Margot went to see them in concert at the Olympia, and figures out the code she sent him so he can answer open her next e-mail.