Nothing to Hide
Seven close friends discover that they don't know each other as well as they thought.
Seven close
friends meet for dinner. Following an anecdote in which a woman discovers her
husband’s infidelity upon his death – because of posthumous, amorous messages
he receives on his unlocked mobile phone – Marie (Bérénice Bejo) suggests a
game of truth or dare. All the guests place their phones in the middle of the
dining table, so that all their calls, texts and emails during the evening can
be shared among them. It’s not as if anybody has anything to hide…
A remake of Paolo
Genovese's 2016 Italian comedy Perfect
Strangers, Fred Cavayé's adaptation is a canny dissection of the double
lives we all lead in the electronic age. Although set entirely in one space –
like a play – the film proves both gripping and comic, thanks largely to the resourcefulness
of the plot twists. It helps, too, that the farce is played – and underplayed –
completely straight, with a fine cast bringing flesh and blood to their
panicking characters.
Such is the ingenuity
of the premise, the original has also been remade in South Korean, Spanish and
Russian versions.
Original
title: Le Jeu.
JAMES CAMERON-WILSON
Cast: Bérénice Bejo, Suzanne Clément, Stéphane
De Groodt, Vincent Elbaz, Grégory Gadebois, Doria Tillier, Roschdy Zem.
Dir Fred Cavayé, Pro Pietro Valsecchi, Camilla Nesbitt, Stéphane Célérier and Valérie
Garcia, Screenplay Fred Cavayé, from
the screenplay Perfetti sconosciuti
by Filippo Bologna and Paolo Costella, Ph
Denis Rouden, Pro Des Philippe
Chiffre, Ed Mickael Dumontier, Music Christophe Julien.
Medset Film/Mars Films/France 2 Cinéma/C8 Films/Scope Invest-Netflix.
93 mins. France/Belgium. 2018. Rel: 16 November 2018. Available on Netflix. Cert. 12.