Don't Tell

R

2005

2 hr. 0 min.

Drama

List

25%

20 Reviews

Tomatometer

53%

2,500+ Ratings

Audience Score

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.

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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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Audience Member

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.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

01/22/23

Full Review

Audience Member

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.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

01/21/23

Full Review

Audience Member

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.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

01/22/23

Full Review

Audience Member

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.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

01/12/23

Full Review

Audience Member

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.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

02/08/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Looks pretty, but goes nowhere. The 'dark secret' is too obvious and overused.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

02/13/23

Full Review

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Cristina Comencini

Director

Giovanna Mezzogiorno

Sabina

Stefania Rocca

Emilia

Angela Finocchiaro

Maria

Alessio Boni

Franco

Luigi Lo Cascio

Daniele

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2005 Oscar Nominations Are In!

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Claudia Puig

USA Today

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.

Rated: 2.5/4

Mar 24, 2006

Full Review

Ruthe Stein

San Francisco Chronicle

Well worth seeing for its sensitive and never maudlin portrayal of a sister and brother bonded together by a family secret.

Rated: 3/4

Mar 17, 2006

Full Review

Kyle Smith

New York Post

Days of Our Lives fans, enjoy.

Rated: 1.5/4

Mar 17, 2006

Full Review

Susan Michals

FilmStew.com

The film meanders and becomes painfully arbitrary in its storyline... Child abuse + funny lesbians = hilarious!!!

Mar 21, 2006

Full Review

Emanuel Levy

EmanuelLevy.Com

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.

Rated: 2/5

Mar 19, 2006

Full Review

Kim Morgan

Reel.com

Here's the problem with Cristina Comencini's Don't Tell: it should have been directed by Pedro Almodovar.

Rated: 2.5/4

Mar 17, 2006

Full Review

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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
Screenwriter: Cristina Comencini, Francesca Marciano
Production Co: RAI Cinema, Alquimia Cinema S.A., Cattleya
Rating: R (Language|A Brief Violent Image|Nudity|Sexual Content)
Genre: Drama
Original Language: Italian
Rerelease Date (Theaters): Mar 17, 2006
Release Date (DVD): Aug 15, 2006
Box Office (Gross USA): $27.1K
Sound Mix: Dolby Digital