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Don't Tell

Play trailer Poster for Don't Tell R 2005 1h 56m Drama Mystery & Thriller Play Trailer Watchlist
Watchlist Tomatometer Popcornmeter
25% Tomatometer 20 Reviews 53% Popcornmeter 2,500+ Ratings
European actress Sabina (Giovanna Mezzogiorno) has a happy relationship with her lover, then a long-buried memory of a childhood trauma surfaces during her pregnancy. She travels to the United States to find her brother (Luigi Lo Cascio), who tells her the horrible truth about their family.
Don't Tell

What to Know

Critics Consensus

As well-intentioned as it is heavy-handed, Don't Tell mishandles a worthy subject with a meandering and melodramatic story.

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Critics Reviews

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Claudia Puig USA Today 03/24/2006
2.5/4
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. Go to Full Review
Ruthe Stein San Francisco Chronicle 03/17/2006
3/4
Well worth seeing for its sensitive and never maudlin portrayal of a sister and brother bonded together by a family secret. Go to Full Review
Kyle Smith New York Post 03/17/2006
1.5/4
Days of Our Lives fans, enjoy. Go to Full Review
Susan Michals FilmStew.com 03/21/2006
The film meanders and becomes painfully arbitrary in its storyline... Child abuse + funny lesbians = hilarious!!! Go to Full Review
Emanuel Levy EmanuelLevy.Com 03/19/2006
2/5
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. Go to Full Review
Kim Morgan Reel.com 03/17/2006
2.5/4
Here's the problem with Cristina Comencini's Don't Tell: it should have been directed by Pedro Almodovar. Go to Full Review
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Audience Reviews

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02/10/2018 Intense psychodrama in this Italian film about a woman who recall her past abuse by a pedophilia father. I first saw the beautiful Giovanna Mezzogiorno in "Love in the Time of Cholera" where she was excellent so I decided to see this film because of that. See more 01/16/2013 Cristina Comencini is the daughter of legendary Italian director Luigi Comencini, one of the makers of the Italian comedy from the Fifties to the Seventies. Cristina is an established director as well -she's also an appreciated writer. Her films are very different from the features of her father -either they're more dramatical or contain a less hilarious comedy. "La bestia nel cuore" means "The beast in the heart" in English. The film is based on a book written by Cristina Comencini herself. See more 12/15/2010 The central story is an interesting one, but it drags and there's too much plot filler that leads no where and has no devine right to be in there to be honest. See more 12/14/2010 When this movie didn't veer away with tedious subplots involving lesbians, it was actually bearable. Interesting if not particularly brilliantly handled subject matter. However, it easily could have ended a good thirty mins sooner, with the final act dragging out to a tedious conclusion. There are elements of pretension, but that is to be expected with a film like this. Could have been worse, and doesn't particularly paint men in a positive light, but meh. This breed of Italian wank is like that really. See more 05/22/2010 This Italian movie, La Bestia Nel Cuore was also an Oscar nominated movie in 2005. It was based on her own novel "The Beast in the heart," director Cristina Comencini showed with this movie an issue of family secrets. Through Sabina, played by beautifully Giovanna Mezzogiorno, anxieties, nightmares, and through her brother Daniele's flashbacks of his childhood , to what their parents did to them, we could feel the painful memories.There were some subplots, like the infidelity of Franco while Sabina was away, a lesbian relationship that developed between Emilia and Maria which was not really necessary, along the main story of incest, it could only make it distracting.The message brought over from this movie was no matter how low you might have reached in your life,or how damaged you feel, there will always be a chance to renew and silence the demons from the past. See more 05/19/2010 Looks pretty, but goes nowhere. The 'dark secret' is too obvious and overused. See more Read all reviews
Don't Tell

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Movie Info

Synopsis European actress Sabina (Giovanna Mezzogiorno) has a happy relationship with her lover, then a long-buried memory of a childhood trauma surfaces during her pregnancy. She travels to the United States to find her brother (Luigi Lo Cascio), who tells her the horrible truth about their family.
Director
Cristina Comencini
Producer
Marco Chimenz, Giovanni Stabilini, Riccardo Tozzi
Screenwriter
Cristina Comencini, Francesca Marciano
Production Co
Aquarius Films, Cattleya, Alquimia Cinema S.A., RAI Cinema, Babe Film
Rating
R (Language|A Brief Violent Image|Nudity|Sexual Content)
Genre
Drama, Mystery & Thriller
Original Language
Italian
Rerelease Date (Theaters)
Mar 17, 2006
Release Date (DVD)
Aug 15, 2006
Box Office (Gross USA)
$27.1K
Runtime
1h 56m
Sound Mix
Dolby Digital