Interviews. Guillaume Canet and Harlan Coben.

"Hitchcock's 'Wrong Man' scenario gets an invigorating French update in Tell No One, a long-winded but gripping thriller based on American author Harlan Coben's bestseller," writes Nick Schager in Slant, reviewing "a film whose entertainingly fleet (and sometimes downright harried) pace... and enticing central mysteries deliver the tangy kicks one craves from juicy pulp."

With Tell No One opening on both coasts this weekend, James Van Maanen talks with Coben and actor-director Guillaume Canet about their César Award-winner.

Updated through 7/6.

"Halfway through the movie, I realized I was very happy that everyone was speaking French," writes David Denby in the New Yorker. "The reason is simple: an American version of this material would have had too many explosions and far too much violence in general, and it would have been similar to thirty other thrillers made here during the past ten years." Instead, we find "a realistic social and working world where good-looking, intelligent, and articulate people find one another interesting. La belle France!"

"Maybe I just see too many plotless indie films where plausibility isn't an issue, or maybe this story demands an enormous leap into the improbable, but I was engrossed by Tell No One from end to end without believing a moment of it," writes Andrew O'Hehir in Salon. "It's a demanding film in terms of its intensity, mechanical complexity and underlying fatalism, but without remotely being intellectual."

"Like most French thrillers, it shows the influence of Hitchcock... or, at least, Hitchcock by way of Claude Chabrol," writes Andy Klein in the LA CityBeat. "It also is occasionally reminiscent of John Schlesinger's Marathon Man, largely (though not entirely) because star François Cluzet (Round Midnight, plus several Chabrol films) so strikingly resembles the young Dustin Hoffman.... If there's a problem with Tell No One, it's that the plot becomes so complicated that, three days after viewing it, I'm already confused about which murder eight years ago was pinned on a random serial killer... or exactly who hired whom for some of the mayhem. I think it all ends up making sense, but I wouldn't swear to it."

"Veteran performers Nathalie Baye, Kristin Scott Thomas and Jean Rochefort lend their marvelously matured talents to three crucial characterizations in this intricate narrative jigsaw puzzle," writes Andrew Sarris in the New York Observer. "I haven't enjoyed so much pleasurably intrigue-laden suspense in ages, and it is charismatically acted, too."

Erica Abeel talks with Canet for indieWIRE.

Updates, 7/2: "In the shortcut language of a movie pitch, Guillaume Canet's delicious contemporary thriller Tell No One is Vertigo meets The Fugitive by way of The Big Sleep," writes Stephen Holden in the New York Times. "That is meant as high praise."

"Canet has covered his bases with enough swooping camerawork, narrative smoke-and-mirrors, and quick-sketched supporting characters for a dozen thrillers," writes Leo Goldsmith at indieWIRE. "Even if all of this demands a rather preposterous explanation, a wonderfully overblown coda, and a slightly overlong running time, it's still enormously fun to watch, the kind of film that Hollywood seems to have forgotten how to make, but which, in Canet's hands, looks almost laid back."

"Clocking in at 125 minutes, Tell No One comes with at least two plot twists too many, and a tell-all finale that practically merits its own intermission," writes Darrell Hartman in the New York Sun. "But otherwise, [Canet] strikes a near-perfect balance of suspense and raw emotion."

"Among the movie's many delights are the fluctuating rhythms of its pacing, an atmospheric volatility that sets off the doctor's blooming paranoia against his sunlit, leafy surroundings, and a terrific cast that includes Kristin Scott Thomas as a bitchy lesbian with heart and a quietly funny François Berléand as an obsessive-compulsive detective," writes Ella Taylor in the Voice.

"Despite a penchant for flashy and elaborate Parisian set pieces (a public park stake-out, an airport nail-biter, a beltway-crossing foot chase), this stylishly filmed action-mystery hybrid (and all the Césars – French Oscars – it won) is a testament to that country's ongoing love of all things American, a muscle-bound blockbuster running along the Seine wearing a 'J'aime Paris' T-shirt," writes Benjamin Sutton in the L Magazine. "Ultimately, class concerns end up carrying the film to its conclusion, and the opposition between our upwardly mobile hero and an aristocratic politician adds some populist satisfaction to the climactic payoff."

"It's a nightmare, all right, but always a plausible one," writes Richard Schickel in Time. "In the midst of another long, overheated summer at the multiplexes, this slightly subversive thought occurs to me; maybe we should sub-contract most of our thriller business to the French. From Claude Chabrol to François Truffaut (and beyond) they've shown a very entertaining respect for American crime and mystery stories. They see that the pressures crime places on otherwise peaceable citizens the opportunity to explore authentic emotions without sacrifice of suspenseful entertainment."

"As they say in the quote blurbs, 'It's a crackerjack thriller.' For once, they're right." Gary Dretzka talks with Coben and Canet for Movie City News.

Online listening tip. Ambrose Heron talks with Canet at FILMdetail.

Updates, 7/3: "How's this for a hook: tell everyone. Guillaume Canet's thriller... is the best movie I've seen this year." Marcy Dermansky

"An odd policier, Tell No One isn't without its rewards, but is also certainly not without problems," argues Chris Barsanti at Filmcritic.com.

"More is thought to be better in Tell No One, making the final twist-filled ending more convoluted than thoughtfully intricate," writes Simon Abrams in the New York Press. "All the clues make sense when pieced together - but only on the surface."

"By and large, Tell No One is more interested in telling a knotty story than pondering its meaning, but in those rare deeper moments, Canet evokes how a tragedy can gather around a man and linger there, like a cloud of gnats," writes Noel Murray at the AV Club.

Canet's a guest on the Leonard Lopate Show.

Update, 7/4: "Yes, there are plot points in the film where you'll later go back and puzzle over how who knew what when, but trust me, you won't be thinking about that while Tell No One's running up on the big screen." James Rocchi at Cinematical.

Update, 7/6: Susan King talks with Canet for the Los Angeles Times.

Posted by dwhudson at July 1, 2008 7:24 AM