Tell No One is a fun, old-fashioned thriller, reminiscent in places of Hitchcockian “wrong man” classics like North by Northwest. It starts intriguingly enough, when Doctor Alexandre Beck is knocked unconscious and his wife Margot is kidnapped–skip forward a few years, and we find that Margot’s body has turned up near the point of her disappearance, and Alex is still in mourning, at least until he receives a mysterious e-mail leading to evidence that his wife may be alive and well.

From there on, a slow build presents plenty of tantalizing clues to what’s really going on, some thoroughly unpleasant bad guys turn up, and the pace steadily quickens until Alex finds himself on the run from just about everybody. As good as the first half is, this section is even better. François Cluzet plays Alex as more of an everyman than an all-action hero, which makes for one of the most believable and involving chase sequences in recent memory, and the introduction of petty gangster Bruno as Alex’s only ally provides some brilliant comic scenes.

Towards the end things do start to unravel a little–the setup is so good that no conclusion, however clever, could entirely do it justice. But it’s not such an issue that you’ll leave feeling confused or underwhelmed, and director Canet has the sense to finish on a poignant note that’s far more satisfying than any last minute twist could be. Tell No One is a rarity in French cinema, a film that’s less preoccupied with looking good and seeming smart than with being entertaining–but it’s also a more solid and original thriller than anything that’s come out of Hollywood in a good long while.