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 DesPhilippe 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.