Tell Tale (2009)
"Tell-Tale" (original title)

A man's newly transplanted heart leads him on a dangerous journey to find out who murdered its donor.

Director:

Michael Cuesta

Writers:

Dave Callaham (screenplay), Edgar Allan Poe (short story "The Tell-Tale Heart")

Stars:

Josh Lucas, Lena Headey, Brian Cox

1 win.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Josh Lucas	...	Terry Bernard
Lena Headey	...	Elizabeth Clemson
Brian Cox	...	Phillip Van Doren
Beatrice Miller	...	Angela Bernard
Jamie Harrold	...	Kevin Stanovich
Michael Kenneth Williams	...	Acherton
Pablo Schreiber	...	Bernard Cochius
Tom Riis Farrell	...	Legethon
Ulrich Thomsen	...	Doctor Lethe
Dallas Roberts	...	The Surgeon
Cassandre Fiering	...	Frances Vieillard
Peg Holzemer	...	Elderly Woman In Wheelchair (as Peg Saurman Holzemer)
Scott Winters	...	Doctor Averman
Kara Lund	...	Nurse
John Timothy Botka	...	Police Officer

Storyline

In Providence, a husband and wife die in a botched robbery; we see flickers of his last memories. His heart goes to Terry Bernard, a single father raising a girl with a rare degenerative disease. After the operation, Terry has flashes of memory from the last moments of the dead donor's life. Then, he recognizes one of the donor's killers and follows him into an alley. Within days, Terry becomes an unwilling avenger, with a police detective on his trail. Meanwhile, he begins a romance with his daughter's doctor, his moods complicated by memory flashes, the donor's deepening presence in both Terry's mind and body, and the unexplained bond among the donor's killers. Can this end well?

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Plot Keywords:

donor | police detective | gore | memory loss | radiologist | 

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Taglines:

The pieces are coming together. His life is falling apart.

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Genres:

Drama | Horror | Sci-Fi | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for violent content, language and a scene of sexuality

Details

Official Sites:

Official site [fr]

Country:

UK USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

31 December 2009 (Greece)

Also Known As:

Tell Tale

Filming Locations:

Benefit Street, Providence, Rhode Island, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$12,000,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Artina Films, Oceana Media Finance, Poe Boy Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

93 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color (FotoKem)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Goofs

When lead character meets Acherton in bathroom his name-tag says Michael Acherton after he is called the detective refers to him as Paul Acherton.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Paramedic: [over radio] Dispatch this is Rescue 3. I have a 55 year old white male named Lyar, John. He has massive blunt trauma to the skull. Glasgow Coma Score is 1, Henry 3. Patient has ID in his wallet identifying him as an organ donor. Alert trauma and transport team.
Dispatcher: Copy that.

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Soundtracks

"The Torture"
Written by Leslie Stevens
Performed by Leslie and the Badgers

User Reviews

The mystery part of it is interesting, the rest is mundane

So this is a movie based on one of Edgar Allan Poe's popular short stories. Although it's not all that close to it, except the movie deals with heartbeats and murders. Josh Lucas is the main protagonist in this movie and he plays a single father raising a daughter that has an illness. But when he gets a heart transplant and meets a female doctor that he starts a relationship with, things start to change. Especially within himself. Josh Lucas is actually really good in this, in fact he sort of reminds me of an American version of Daniel Craig. The thing is the beginning interested me than the rest of the movie. The mystery of trying to figure out what is going on kinda drives this movie. But when finding out what is going on, it just basically goes in a narrow and not very interesting direction. Overall the mystery aspect of this movie is kinda interesting but the rest is just mundane.

5.5/20