A well-acted melodrama with some engaging characters and a storyline that holds the attention
Don't Tell (2005)
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Reviews Counted:21
Fresh:6
Rotten:15
Average Rating:5.3/10
Theatrical Release:Mar 17, 2006 Limited
Synopsis: Based upon the celebrated novel La Bestia nel Cuore, DON'T TELL is the mesmerizing story of a woman's journey into her past and the aftermath of confronting personal demons long hidden beneath the... Based upon the celebrated novel La Bestia nel Cuore, DON'T TELL is the mesmerizing story of a woman's journey into her past and the aftermath of confronting personal demons long hidden beneath the surface of her psyche. At the heart of the film is Sabina (Giovanna Mezzogiorno- Best Actress, 2005 Venice Film Festival), a beautiful young woman who seemingly has it all- a supportive and loving boyfriend, a comfortable lifestyle, and a promising future. But when Sabina learns she is pregnant, a normally celebratory occasion is clouded by a succession of haunting nightmares, strange memories, and personal insecurities that send Sabina's world spiraling out of control. While shunning the affections of her boyfriend Franco (Alessio Boni), Sabina flees to America where she seeks comfort from her brother Daniele (Luigi Lo Cascio) and his family. In the arms of her loved ones, Sabina uncovers truths so dark and disturbing that she begins to question her own instincts about life, love, and her future happiness, leading to an intense psychological climax that finds Sabina at a crossroads of redemption or destruction. --© Lionsgate Films [More]
Starring: Giovanna Mezzogiorno, Alessio Boni, Stefania Rocca, Angela Finocchiaro
Starring: Giovanna Mezzogiorno, Alessio Boni, Stefania Rocca, Angela Finocchiaro
Studio: Lions Gate Films
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Reviews for Don't Tell
A crowd-pleasing Italian melodrama... but the humour and the drama do not mix well and Boni and Mezzogiorno never really convince.
Don't Tell, Italy's submission for the foreign-language Oscar, has strong performances, but the story takes too long to get off the ground.
The lifelong shame and trauma experienced by the victims of childhood incest are grippingly dramatized by Cristina Comencini, consummate mistress of Italian family drama, in Don't Tell, probably her most successful film.
Comencini is attempting to put on some kind of show about modern gender and sexuality issues, but that's all it is: a show, and a fatuous one at that.
Goes off on too many tangents from the central story with irrelevant subplots that might actually have been decent movies on their own.
Such tales are the issue du jour stateside, which makes Don't Tell's slavish adherence to Dr. Phil–inspired recovered-memory orthodoxies seem more than a touch ingenuous.
Though tackling such potentially subversive subjects as incest and lesbianism, this inexplicably Oscar-nominee from Italy is basically a Lifetime Original performed as a magic show.
Comencini translates these tensions from her novel Beast in the Heart with a literal hand that is inclined to underscore anguished looks with explanatory flashbacks.
It's swiftly paced and never dull, but the heavy-handed symbolism comes fast and thick.
Here's the problem with Cristina Comencini's Don't Tell: it should have been directed by Pedro Almodovar.
Just because American films frequently exploit repressed memories as a plot device in nasty genre pictures doesn't make the genteel Don't Tell a sophisticated or particularly insightful film.
Well worth seeing for its sensitive and never maudlin portrayal of a sister and brother bonded together by a family secret.
Don't Tell, which was unaccountably nominated for an Oscar for best foreign language film, is no better than a second-tier candidate for the Lifetime Channel.
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