MovieChat Forums > Ne le dis à personne (2006) Discussion > This film made me dumb (and numb)

This film made me dumb (and numb)

posted 15 years ago by groggo
16 replies | jump to latest

SPOILERS (I THINK)

There have been many comments about the plot holes in this movie, and I feel better after reading them: I wasn't the only one scratching my head in bewilderment.

I was so confused by all the twists, all the characters weaving in and out of the frames, that I simply couldn't follow what was going on. I began to think I was either dumb or numb, or perhaps both. Why was I getting so confused so often? I had to keep rewinding my DVD, trying to figure out who X was, and why he (or she) was suddenly there, or why he (or she) was suddenly getting bumped off or was suddenly trying to bump someone else off.

All things considered, this film was well-made and well-photographed, but it is too convoluted and vague. It had two or three plot twists too many. I found it hard to accept that all of the sinister events in the film began and ended with the motives of a SINGLE PERSON: the father of Philippe (played by Jean Rochefort). Yet, for all his importance to the film, we know next to nothing about him. We learn he's a rich senator who, we are expected to believe, has such influence that he can silence absolutely everyone, including the entire police force. This guy has more power than God, yet we don't really know who he is.

You know a film is muddled and flawed when a 15-minute period at the end is required to EXPLAIN the byzantine plot.

Overall, I think this film was seriously overrated.

[–] miktal-1 15 years ago

I dont mind a complicated thriller that leaves you guessing, but this one was trying way too hard. There was never a time when a piece of the jigsaw suddenly fell into place and you could see the whole story and everything began to make sense. Worse still was when we did finally learn what was going on, we find out that we were not given all of the clues. Basically, Alex could of been running around for the next few years and not worked out what actually happened. But the biggest sin was for a character to sit down for 12 minutes at the end and drag you by the nose thru the whole story, which even then was a big stretch to believe. Inexplicable behaviour and decisions, motiveless actions, incompitant news reporters, total ignorance and stupidity from the police, all tied together with no one asking very simple and obvious questions.

A rich and powerful politicans son is brutally murdered. The only suspect, a hodlum drug dealer, is given an alibi from the daughter of the Cheif of Police, who actually worked WITH THE VICTIM!!!! She is then killed by an infamous serial killer, who up until this point has claimed responsibility for all of his victims, but says he didnt kill her.

It`s all a bit silly really.

"Come on, Doc. We`re not talking about a band-aid or a tube a Ungentine"

[–] TheStaggeringGenius 15 years ago

A rich and powerful politicans son is brutally murdered. The only suspect, a hodlum drug dealer, is given an alibi from the daughter of the Cheif of Police, who actually worked WITH THE VICTIM!!!! She is then killed by an infamous serial killer, who up until this point has claimed responsibility for all of his victims, but says he didnt kill her.

Some of which, and more, is pointed out by one of the police guys involved in the reopening of the case. Whether that makes the film better or worse I don't know, but I did enjoy it.

www.last.fm/music/The+Cakes (now on Spotify)

[–] El_DustinD 15 years ago

I thought it was a wonderful movie and flowed perfectly. I loved everything about it.

Procrastination fools you into thinking you succeed merely by not failing.

[–] richvirgo 15 years ago

AMEN! One of the most boring,pretentious "Thrillers" I have ever seen.Could not wait for it to end .Your right on that the last 15 minutes of the film are used to explain what the viewer has been watching .Another lousy,overrated French film.

[–] Blarhhh 15 years ago

Another lousy,overrated French film.

Based on an American author's novel...

"No Silicon Heaven? Preposterous! Where would all the calculators go?"

[–] qpw3141 15 years ago

Clue: An intelligent person, confronted by a film s/he feels is one of the most pretentious, boring, they have ever seen will STOP WATCHING.

There really is no need to suffer and then waste your time telling everyone that you watched something you hated until the end.

[–] cthulhulurks 15 years ago

Oh, I'm appalled by the 7.1 Imdb score. Massively overrated.

my vote history:
http://imdb.com/mymovies/list?l=27424531

[–] edward_the_longshanks 15 years ago

I suggest reading the book. It was fantastic.

[–] ramsaylanier 15 years ago

Confusing, no... contrived plot? Absolutely. Really, I was enthralled with the plot until about the last 1/3 of the movie. The acting was great, but the direction was ho-hum, and the score was insultingly bad and obnoxious.

But I wasn't too confused by it.

[–] Lopsided55 12 years ago

I think the film is better than the book. I didn't find it hard to understand, but then you weren't supposed to know what was going on until the confession. OP fails to understand it's a suspense film that meant to keep you guessing. It they had set it up and explained all the relationships, you would have guessed the plot/murders.

[–] EggyToast 15 years ago

The biggest problem with the film was that nothing was introduced until after the halfway point. We don't know that any of these families are connected in any way, or why we should care about them. The first half is that Alex is being framed for murder and bad stuff is going down. Then he gets away and we slow down to this convoluted conspiracy. Conspiracy is fine, but the movie doesn't give any background. We see the "big bad" and realize that he's doing something for his son, but just like you said, when everything is slowly explained at the end, that's when we realize why the rest of the story is important.

I think it's still very well done, but it was definitely missing some important elements setting up who these people are. To compare it to a great movie, The Godfather's first scene is a big party where many of the characters are introduced and it's obvious that they're all a part of the family in some way. The Godfather has a pretty complex plot but never feels overly complicated.

But yeah, in Tell No One, way too much is saved for the end, so it feels more like you're just along for the ride. And I can't even argue that it's from Alex's point-of-view, because we don't even see anything about his dad until the very end. C'mon, didn't the director think that revealing that Alex's dad died during a hunting accident with the Big Bad Guy was important?!

[–] DrGlitterhouse 14 years ago

If the relationships among families had been spelled out at the beginning, the movie would have been more about the wrongs the Neuville family had done to Alex's family than Alex being kept from his one true love. The deleted scenes on the DVD show that the director had ample coverage and wisely left it a lot of it out.

Most of the important details are there if you're paying attention. When the movie flashed back to Margot's father identifying her body, I thought his jacket looked like some sort of uniform, but I wasn't sure, and when Kristen Scott-Thomas' character was introduced, at first I assumed she was Alex's girlfriend (like the second girlfriend in Spoorloos), so his relationship with her was a big surprise. Also, the flashbacks Alex has at the lake clearly suggest that he and Margot have known each other since childhood. There are some missing pieces, but not enough to detract from the film as a whole.

"How's that for Japanese efficiency?"

[–] tommybass 15 years ago

Like Hollywood movies are any better?

Tell No One was an excellent film.

[–] brent8577 14 years ago

maybe most of the people that don't like this film are dumb, or just against France. i don't know. i read some of the negative reviews and didn't see any real reasons or truths. the age casting can be ignored. the only thing that didn't make sense to me was how the hitpeople knew where the meet was if he went to a cafe. i decided maybe it was in the book somewhere and let it go. the rest made plenty sense. i thought it was great and wonder what Ben Affleck will do with it.

[–] TheSummer2012 13 years ago

You know a film is muddled and flawed when a 15-minute period at the end is required to EXPLAIN the byzantine plot.

Couldn't have put it better myself.

It's not a bad movie by any means, it keeps you interested but its plot is fundamentally flawed.

[–] quaddo 9 years ago

maybe most of the people that don't like this film are dumb, or just against France. i don't know. i read some of the negative reviews and didn't see any real reasons or truths. the age casting can be ignored.

I think it can be summed up by: "how DARE the French make a film adaptation of an American/English novel"

the only thing that didn't make sense to me was how the hitpeople knew where the meet was if he went to a cafe. i decided maybe it was in the book somewhere and let it go. the rest made plenty sense.

The guy that says "you were here first" after Alex Beck has tied up his dog, and then takes the booth next to Beck, is one of the "hitpeople".

RIP Ian Richardson (1934-2007) http://akas.imdb.com/name/nm0007183