Nobody Has to Know

Near the start of this film, we hear a weather forecast on the car radio advising sunny spells are imminent. Well they didn't come, nor are there really any other sunny moments in this story. Set on the rather dark, bleak and wintry Isle of Lewis, we meet "Phil" (auteur Bouli Landers) who works as a general factotum with "Brian" (Andrew Still) who is the grandson of the smallholding owner "Angus" (Julian Glover). The two workers bond well enough during their largely outdoor, and muddy, endeavours and also over a pint afterwards where the former man discovers that the young man's aunt "Millie" (Michelle Fairley) is looked upon rather disdainfully by others in their small community. It's only when "Phil" suffers a stroke on the beach, that this lady comes forward to help his recuperation, and in the process tells quite a big "white" lie that sets the scene for the rest of this drama. It's a very slow burn with, frankly, a very thin plot but the acting is quite genuine and the island environment and tightly knit family scenario does add a bit of richness to the increasingly predicable outcome. I've seen Fairley on stage a few times and she is a good actress at delivering the less is more style, but here there are just too many lingering shots, driving to and fro, having a cigarette meaningfully - without really developing the characters enough, nor really explaining while the originally Belgian visitor is there in the first place. It's nicely shot, but just rather unremarkable.

One of my new favourits! Every picture and every piece of dialogue adds to either deeper understanding or drives the story forward. Wonderful actors, good script, beautiful photography and editing makes this one of my favourite movies of all time. In our local filmstudio 460 spectators gave the film an average 4.3 point out of 5. I'm looking forward for more films from this excellent director. The following is just to reach the number of required characters. The required 600 is to much! I can write my meaning in far less than that.but here it is: 46 to go. Xxxxxxxxc niw it's just 10 left so thankyou for the fish.

I've walked out of the movies twice in my life. Once twenty years ago, and once today at Nobody Has To Know. The trailer was good, and the plot intriguing, so as it's a rainy day, off I went to see it. After more than one hour of watching this, I still didn't know any more than I already learned from the trailer. Man has stroke, loses memory, woman lies that she is his secret girlfriend. Ok yes got it, sounds cool, now what next? Not much, apparently. I found the dialogue wooden and cliched: often I could predict what the characters were about to say or do. The acting is excellent. The setting is ok. You can convince yourself that the setting is beautiful because of the music and cinematography, but really it's just an average shoreline in mediocre weather that starts to seem interesting after a while because the plot is so incredibly dull that even watching a wave move up and down seems exciting in comparison. In future I will avoid movies where the male lead is also the writer and director, especially if the entire plot is that a woman who is much better looking than the male lead inexplicably insists on being in a relationship with him.

Went to see this one as I was bored & there was nothing else showing at my local, so out of curiosity, I went to see this one. Phil, a robust middle-aged man suffers a stroke, causing him to lose his memory. Millie, who takes care of him, tells him falsely that they were secretly in love before his accident. I found the film to be not bad, once it got going that is, & when it did, it wasn't bad & had an interesting story-line. But my issues with the film are the mundane & dreary way it was telling the story & the lack of narrative at some scenes which just happened & you had to guess what was going on. Not that it was hard as you had a pretty good idea what was going on for the most part, but a bit of clarification would've been nice. The films characters are ok, but again like the visuals & story-telling, are flat & dull & lack some form of personality. The film could've been more upbeat as with the characters & could've used some upbeat music or maybe some montages here & there. The films runtime is not bad at 1hr & 33mins (93 minutes), & didn't have bad pacing to be fair. There's not a lot of action or drama, so be prepared for that when you see this film. Overall, it's not bad considering the premise sounds somewhat off colour & something that would not have gone down well had the roles been reversed. But despite the dullness of the films story telling, set pieces & characters, it was generally not a bad film with a bitter sweet ending. 6/10.

source: Nobody Has to Know

This film has won three awards to date--all deserving and correctly encapsulating the strengths of the film. Two awards were Silver Hugos for the Best Actor (Bouli Lanners) and the Best Actress (Michelle Fairley) at the Chicago film festival. (The two actors are two of three co-directors as well.) The third award was for the film's cinematography for Frank van den Eeden at the Oostende Film Festival. I am not sure, however, if a person who suffers a stroke losing his memory can recall his past so well with time as depicted in the film. May be they can. I am not a doctor.

Excellent acting, slow burn storytelling, cinematography could have been better. One for grown ups and not for those with ADHD or young of mind. Nice to see the Isle of Lewis featured in the film but I think there are better sets that could have been filmed at.

This film is so exquisitely shot, the backdrop of Scotland works its magic but also the interior sets look like paintings. The gentle unfolding story moves at a perfect pace with minimal dialogue. I loved it and would definitely recommend you to watch.

There was much potential with the storyline. It flopped a little. No proper build up or no proper dilemma/ problem or anything to make the film a little less monotonal.

Saw this at a film society in Oz. This is in an expertly done romance set in a severe but beautiful coastal landscape of a northern Scotland isle. The male and female leads, Bouli Lanners and Michelle Fairley both are listed as directors and Bouli also for screenplay. Dialogue is as sparse as the trees on the hills, but pleasantly sufficient. The characters and views reminded me a little of Babettes 'feasters', the stark cold scenery and dour people of a hard, high number, latitude. Phil from Belgium is living and working on the island. After he suffers a minor stroke that causes amnesia, Millie falsely tells him he was previously in a relationship with her. As the story unfolds you feel the frustration of constricted feelings and too the warmth of their torturous release. A nice film, it makes me realize why I go to 'art movies'.