movies
BY JASON BLAIR
Return to Sender
A widower gets a message from the grave
TELL NO ONE :
Directed by Guillaume Canet.
Written by Guillaume Canet and Phillipe Lefebvre,
based on the book by Harlan Coben. Cinematography,
Christophe Offenstein. Music, Mathieu Chadid.
Starring Francois Cluzet, Marie-Josée Croze and
Kristin Scott Thomas. Europa, 2008. Unrated. 125
minutes. 44442
A
man and a woman lie nestled on
a dock in the moonlight, alone
in the center of a lake. They
quarrel. She swims to shore. Out of sight,
she screams his name. Frantically he
leaps into the water to save her, only to
be clubbed, as he climbs the other dock,
by what appears to be a baseball bat. Fade
to black.
Now that’s the way to build a thriller.
Morbid, yes, but full of possibilities, Tell
No One is a layered and complex creation,
a ripe fruit just when summer looked barren
of anything to savor.
Eight years after his wife’s death, Alex
(Francois Cluzet) still longs for Margot
(The Diving Bell and the Butterfl y’s
Marie-Josée Croze). When an email
arrives claiming to be from Margot, his
devotion makes him the perfect victim
— at whose hands we aren’t
exactly sure — or the perfect
husband who never gave up on
true love. As Alex sorts through
the possibilities, two bodies
are found in the vicinity of the
lake, at which point the police,
who have suspected Alex all
along, reopen the case with a
vengeance. Part of the success of Tell No
One is that it manages to present every
possibility convincingly, much in the same
way great novels do, and to such a degree
that you can’t help wondering if perhaps
the cops have it right. After all, how did
Alex emerge from the water on the night
of his wife’s murder? Who made the 911
call that alerted police to the crime? These
and other mysteries raise suspicions that,
once they begin to compete and collide, lift
tensions to an almost unbearable level.
Even with its myriad subplots — there
are more twists than the road to Sainte
Agnes in Tell No One — the fi lm never
forgets to thrill and entertain. Working
from the American crime novel by Harlan
Coben, young actor/director Guillaume
Tell No One
Canet (the French traveler Étienne from
The Beach) manages, despite his relative
inexperience, to create the impression of
French high society types coming to grips
with their secrets and lies. He maximizes
the paranoia by keeping the look clean and
tidy; he lets his characters, not his cameras,
jump to conclusions in Tell No One. The
actors perform brilliantly for Canet, in
particular Kristin Scott Thomas as Hélène,
the shifty lover to Alex’s sister, Anne
(Marina Hands), and Francois Berleands
as a crusty cop with a soft spot for his
mother.
Tell No One is The Fugitive with twice the
IQ — and every bit of muscle. In fact, the
only fl ab on Tell No One’s lean physique is,
of all things, the backwards-glancing love
story between Alex and Margot, which dates
back to their childhood. There’s a syrupy
montage contrasting their wedding against
Margot’s funeral, a treacly passage set to
Jeff Buckley’s “Lilac Wine.” (Otherwise,
Tell No One uses music superbly, including
obscure gems by Otis Redding and Richie
Havens.) Soon after, Alex attacks a grove
of giant trees with what appears to be an
oversized twig. In other words, Tell No
One can be excessive and silly in places,
the equivalent of using a shovel when a
spade would suffi ce. If it’s not a classic
fi lm, it’s a fi rst-rate thriller, demanding that
we pay attention throughout. Tell No One
is easily one of the best fi lms of 2008. See
it, then tell everyone.
ew
Tell No One opens Friday, Aug. 22, at the Bijou.
movie clips
OPENING OR RETURNING:
Bottle Shock: Alan Rickman stars as the owner of
a Parisian wine shop who fi nds all kinds of surprises
(not least that the wine isn’t that bad) when he heads
to California to pick a few wines to use in a tasting
contest. With Bill Pullman (as a perfectionist winery
owner), Chris Pine and Rachael Taylor. PG14. 108 min.
Cinemark.
CSNY Déjà Vu: Neil Young directs this fi lm of CSNY’s
Freedom of Speech Tour, documenting the band,
having a Nightline reporter interview Iraq war vets
met along the way, and drawing parallels between
the Vietnam and Iraq wars. An “unfl inching, well-
constructed picture,” said the Los Angeles Times. R.
96 min. Bijou.
Death Race: Jason Statham (The Transporter) is a
falsely convicted criminal (and racing champ) forced to
take part in an evil prison warden (Joan Allen)’s brutal
race, in which convicts compete … for their lives! With
Ian McShane. R. Cinemark. VRC Stadium 15.
Hamlet 2: High school drama teacher Dana Marschz
(the reliably funny Steve Coogan) decides to produce
a musical sequel to Hamlet that pushes the envelope
in countless ways. Amy Poehler is the ACLU attorney
who helps him fi ght the power; Elisabeth Shue plays,
um, herself. The main song? “Rock Me Sexy Jesus.”
Sold. R. 92 min. VRC Stadium 15.
House Bunny, The: Playboy bunny Shelley Darlington
(Anna Faris) gets booted from the mansion and fi nds
herself helping the members of a sorority that’s in danger
of losing its house. She teaches them about makeup!
They teach her about individuality! Please, Hollywood.
Stop that. PG13. Cinemark. VRC Stadium 15.
Kung Fu Panda: Jack Black — or at least his voice
— stars as Po the Panda, a waiter whose love for kung
fu serves him well when it turns out there’s a prophecy
about him saving the world from some powerful
enemies. With the voices of Dustin Hoffman, Angelina
Jolie and Jackie Chan. PG. 88 min. Movies 12.
Longshots, The: Inspirational sports movie, ahoy!
Ice Cube stars as the high school football coach who
rallies his team (and town) around the school’s fi rst
female quarterback (Keke Palmer). I suspect victory
lies ahead. PG13. Cinemark. VRC Stadium 15.
Rocker, The: You know it’s August when you get a
movie about a former hair metal drummer whose
nephew just so happens to, like, really need a
drummer, man! Rainn Wilson is the ex-metal dude;
sassy Emma Stone (Superbad) is in this and The
House Bunny, the poor thing. PG13. Cinemark. VRC
Stadium 15.
Tell No One: Incredibly well-reviewed French thriller
about Alex (Francois Cluzet), a man who’s believed his
wife dead for eight years — until he receives an email
that appears to be from her. Bodies are found near
where she died, and Alex is a suspect; he takes off
in search of the truth. “Here is how a thriller should
be made,” said Roger Ebert. NR. 125 min. Bijou. See
review this issue.
X-Files: I Want to Believe: Oh, Chris Carter. You
gave me a title like that and then … you failed. I
wanted to believe that this X-fi lm, coming years
after the last and apparently requiring no previous
knowledge of the X-Files mythology, would be as
good as possible, but you stuffed it full of stupidity.
And some offensiveness, too. Fie. PG13. Movies 12.
21111 (7/31)
Films open the Friday following EW publication
date unless otherwise noted. See archived
reviews at www.eugeneweekly.com
CONTINUING:
Brideshead Revisited: Julian Jarrold (Becoming
Jane, Kinky Boots) directs this adaptation of the
Evelyn Waugh novel about a young, middle-class
Englishman caught up with the wealthy, religious,
upper-class Flyte family, especially son Sebastian
(Ben Whishaw) and daughter Julia (Hayley Atwell).
The result is pretty love triangle, and a fi lm that gives
short shrift to the themes and tensions beneath the
surface. PG13. 120 min. Bijou. 44411 (8/14)
Chronicles of Narnia, The: Prince Caspian: When the
Pevensie children fi nd themselves back in Narnia, it’s
just a year later for them — and 1300 years later for the
magical land, now under the control of an evil foreigner.
Lucy, Susan, Peter and Edmund (with help, of course)
must help get the true king back on Narnia’s throne. PG.
144 min. Movies 12. 44211 (5/22)
Dark Knight, The: Christopher Nolan’s second
take on the alter ego of Bruce Wayne (Christian
Bale), who has a new nemesis in the Joker (Heath
Ledger, earning whispers of a posthumous Oscar
nod), is both an enthrallingly entertaining summer
action movie and a complicated moral tangle.
With Maggie Gyllenhaal, Michael Caine and Aaron
Eckhart. PG13.152 min. Cinemark. VRC Stadium 15.
44442 (7/24)
Hancock: Grumpy, drunken, superpowered Hancock
(Will Smith, aka Mr. July) has a habit of wreaking
considerable destuction when saving lives. But a PR
guy (Jason Bateman) somehow shows Hancock that
he does have a softer side. He can be better! At least
I think that’s what he says in the ads. PG13. 92 min.
Cinemark.
Hellboy II: The Golden Army: “The world’s toughest
kitten-loving hero from Hell” (Ron Perlman) — with
sidekick Abe (Doug Jones, last seen as the Faun in
director Guillermo del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth) and
love interest Liz (Selma Blair) — fi nds himself standing
between an army of fantastic creatures and the world
as we know it when an ancient truce is broken. PG13.
Movies 12. 44411 (7/17)
Iron Man: The fi rst major summer fl ick stars Robert
Downy Jr. as Tony Stark, a wealthy industrialist who
devises a suit that gives him the superheroic ability
to take down baddies who misuse his destructive
technology. Awesome. With Jeff Bridges, Terrence
Howard and Gwyneth Paltrow. PG13. Movies 12.
44441 (5/8)
WWW.EUGENEWEEKLY.COM • BLOGS.EUGENEWEEKLY.COM
Journey to the Center of the Earth: Brendan
Fraser stars as a less-than-traditional scientist who
fi nds himself leading his nephew and a friend into
the center of the earth, where there’s … another
world! In 3D, which makes all those falling rocks and
underground dinosaurs even more exciting. PG. 89
min. Cinemark. VRC Stadiium 15.
Love Guru, The: Mike Myers pulls another wacky
character out of his bag of tricks; this one’s an
American, raised overseas by, um, gurus, who returns
to his native land to make it big in the self-help
business. With Jessica Alba, Justin Timberlake and
Ben Kingsley. PG13. Movies 12.
Mamma Mia!: Get the song outta my head! Oh, too
late. Anyway, the giant hit Broadway musical becomes
a giant fi lm starring Meryl Streep as the mother
whose daughter (Amanda Seyfried of Veronica Mars)
wants to fi nd out who her father is: Colin Firth, Pierce
Brosnan or Stellan Skarsgard. Oh, and there’s some
Abba. PG13. 108 min. Cinemark. VRC Stadium 15.
Mirrors: You know that mirror gag in horror fi lms?
When someone swings their medicine cabinet into
place and — gasp! — there’s someone in the room?
This pretty much looks like an entire movie of the
mirror gag. With a lot of screaming. And Kiefer
Sutherland. R. 110 min. Cinemark. VRC Stadium 15.
Mummy, The: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor:
Brendan Fraser goes on his second summer
adventure and his third as “explorer” Rick O’Connell.
Rick’s got to take down a long-dead emperor (Jet
Li) who, one assumes, wants to take over the world
(isn’t that what evil emperors do?). Maria Bello takes
over from Rachel Weisz as wife Evelyn; newbie Luke
Ford is son Alex; John Hannah returns as Rick’s
wisecracking brother; Michelle Yeoh livens things
up as a “double-crossing sorceress.” PG13. 112 min.
Cinemark. VRC Stadium 15.
Pineapple Express: I’ve been waiting for this one
since I fi rst saw the redband (R-rated) trailer, which
is full of lines too crassly fantastic to be successfully
quoted out of context. Generally, the fi lm (written by
the same folks as Superbad) is about a pot dealer,
one of his customers and some folks who want to kill
them. Directed by David Gordon Green, whose usual
fare (All the Real Girls) is a little different. R. 111 min.
Cinemark. VRC Stadium 15. 44211 (8/14)
Sex and the City: High heels and ugly dresses (c’mon,
you know Carrie wears some truly dreadful stuff) take
it to the big screen in what New York magazine calls “a
joyful wallow.” Plot? You want plot? I’m thinking some
boy trouble, some mild strife, maybe a happy ending or
two for Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker), Charlotte (Kristin
Davis), Samantha (Kim Cattrall) and Miranda (Cynthia
Nixon). R. 148 min. Movies 12.
Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2: The sequel
to the sweet and light 2005 fi lm jumps ahead three
years (and, I gather, a few books in the series) to the
foursome’s departure for different colleges. Stars
America Ferrera, Blake Lively (now a bigger name
thanks to Gossip Girl), Amber Tamblyn and Alexis
Bledel. PG13. 117 min. Cinemark. VRC Stadium 15.
Space Chimps: Animated fl ick involving, um, space
chimps. They’re sent into space to visit an inhabited
planet, only to fi nd themselves stuck there with the
planet’s tyrannical leader. I just can’t seem to muster
much enthusiasm for this one. G. 81 min. Movies 12.
Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Animated fi lm sits
between Attack of the Clones and, um… oh yeah:
Revenge of the Sith. (I really had to think about that.)
Anakin, Obi-Wan, Yoda and other familiar faces — and
a young Padawan named Ahsoka — face off against
the Sith while the Separatists and Galactic Empire
battle for the fate of the galaxy. Or something. It’s
got lightsabers; what else do you need to know? PG.
90 min. Cinemark. VRC Stadium 15.
Step Brothers: Just what the world doesn’t need:
another Will Ferrell/John C. Reilly comedy. This time,
the two are immature fellows whose parents get
married. They hate each other, and then they love
each other, and then they have to save the family.
And every single joke in the trailer falls fl at. R. VRC
Stadium 15.
Tropic Thunder: Ben Stiller directs this wildly funny
if somewhat meandery send-up of actors and war
movies; he also stars (with Jack Black and Robert
Downey Jr.) as one of the primadonna actors whose
director (Steve Coogan) decides to impart a bit of
realism to his Vietnam fi lm — by dropping his stars
into the jungle and fi lming their reactions. R. 107 min.
Cinemark. VRC Stadium 15. See review this issue.
Vicky Cristina Barcelona: Woody Allen’s latest
involves a man (Javier Bardem), his crazy ex-wife
(Penelope Cruz) and two young American women
(Scarlett Johansson and Rebecca Hall) with whom
the former couple becomes “amorously entangled.” Is
anyone else having a hard time taking this summary
seriously? PG13. 96 min. VRC Stadium 15.
WALL-E: The latest from the geniuses at Pixar
is about a lonely trash-cleaning robot on what’s
left of Earth. A sleek robot named EVE discovers,
when she visits the deserted planet, that WALL-E’s
fi gured out something important, so off to the stars
(and the humans) she races, a besotted WALL-E in
pursuit. “One of the best movies of the year,” said
Richard Roeper. G. 97 min. Cinemark. VRC Stadium
15. 44441 (7/3)
Wanted: This disasatrously bad Angelina Jolie-
starring assassin fl ick is directed by Timur
Bekmanbetov, who was behind the underseen Night
Watch. Jolie and Morgan Freeman are part of the
Fraternity, a secret society of assassins; the usually
delightful James McAvoy is the whingy former offi ce
drone who gets recruited after his father is killed. R.
110 min. Movies 12.
You Don’t Mess With the Zohan: Adam Sandler
plays an Israeli commando who really wants to be
a hairstylist in this gently mocking and fun comedy
from the minds of Sandler, Judd Apatow (Knocked
Up) and Robert Smigel (Triumph the Insult Comic
Dog). PG13. Movies 12. 44411 (6/12)
EUGENE WEEKLY AUGUST 21, 2008 29