Tell No One is a gripping thriller, exhilarating to watch and superbly executed.

Every year Alex (François Cluzet) and his wife Margot (Marie-Josée Croze) visit the secluded lake where they first met as childhood sweethearts and skinny dip. After an argument she swims off. Hearing her screams Alex races to her rescue, but is hit over the head by an unseen assailant. The next day her body is found mutilated and covered with dead animals.

A serial killer was convicted of the crime, but the mild-mannered paediatrician has never recovered from her death. Then, eight years later, she sends him an email.

The email directs him to a webcam showing Margot in a shopping mall and instructions to meet him in a Parisian park.

Meanwhile, two bodies are discovered in the same lake and Alex’s blood is found on the baseball bat owned by one of the victims. The police, who always suspected Alex of his wife’s murder, re-open the investigation making him the chief suspect.

Alex’s friends start to die and he finds himself being pursued by a group of sadistic killers. Determined to make the rendezvous Alex goes on the run.

Adapted from the American novel by Harlan Coben Tell No One transfers beautifully to the screen and across a language divide. We’re never in any doubt that Alex is innocent and Cluzet has a dignified restraint throughout. As his world falls apart there are no histrionics or needless heroics.

Alex’s main confidante is lesbian restaurant owner Hélène (Kristin Scott Thomas) who lives with Alex’s sister Anne (Marina Hands). She thinks Hélène is having an affair with one of her waitresses. No big deal is made of their sexuality, they just happen to be gay as well as many other things in the film, which only adds to Tell No One’s many delights.

Tell No One is the type of thriller that Hollywood churns out every week, but under French direction, by former actor in The Beach Guillaume Canet, it has a sensitivity that would be lacking if it had been made in the US.

The complex denouement just about convinces, although probably shouldn’t be scrutinised too deeply. Tell No One is a classic and you won’t want the credits to roll.

Tell No One opens in the UK on 15 June 2007

Kristin Scott Thomas last played a lesbian in Roman Polanski's black comedy Bitter Moon. Check it out online and save money!