Tell Tale (2009) User Reviews

A riff on the Edgar Allan Poe story

[blanche-2 · 6/10 · 2 June 2014]

I liked Josh Lucas in The Client, so I chose this film as a rental. Don't ask me why because horror/thriller/blood is just not my thing.

A husband and wife die in a botched robbery, and the man's heart goes to Terry Bernard, a single father of a daughter with a degenerative disorder. Terry keeps remembering bits and pieces from what must have been the donor's last moments. He starts being able to hear his heart beat. Then he sees one of the donor's killers and does away with him.

Terry is tortured by the sound of his heart, the fact that he's killed, and the flashes of memory he has. But he continues finding the killers and getting rid of them. Meanwhile he is starting a romance with an attractive doctor at the hospital who wants to help him, but he won't tell her what's wrong. The only person who knows his secret is the officer who was in charge of the case but couldn't close it. He wants Terry to do what he can't - get justice.

You may like this if you're into horror-type films. I have to say I liked the ending very much, and it really brought the level of the film up. And the story is intriguing.

This could have been a bigger, better film, but given its budget, it does well enough.

I would rather this film had straight up sucked

[MBunge · 4/10 · 7 December 2011]

There's something uniquely frustrating about this film. Bad movies are a certain kind of disappointment. Good movies that go bad are another. Tell Tale aims at and successfully achieves a complacent mediocrity and then just as it suggests it might become something better, it goes right in the toilet. Being lulled into a resigned acceptance, only to have your hopes raised and then instantly dashed is an aggravating emotional whiplash. I usually wish that movies had been better. I would have preferred this one to be worse, sparing me those few bitter moments of futile hope.

Based loosely, and I mean very loosely, on Edgar Allen Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart", this motion picture is about Terry Bernard (Josh Lucas). He's a recent heart transplant recipient trying to get his life back in order. He's got a young daughter named Angela (Beatrice Miller) with a terminal genetic disorder and Angela has a beautiful doctor named Liz (Lena Headey) who's also pretty fond of Terry. I'd like to tell you more about these characters but they don't have any distinct personalities. If you smushed all their defining character traits together you still wouldn't have anything resembling a three dimensional human being.

Terry starts having these episodes where he hears his heart thundering in his ears and sees strange images of people milling about in a dark room. These episodes eventually lead to Terry killing people and with the help of a jaded detective (Brian Cox), he learns that his victims are the people who killed the person whose heart now beats in Terry's chest. And that demanding, magical organ isn't gong to let Terry stop killing.

Now, let me give you an example of what I mean by Tell Tale being mediocre. A pretty big deal is made of Angela's genetic disorder, to the point where there's an entire scene built around it. Terry having a sick daughter, though, let alone one with a very rare and heart-breaking condition, never goes anywhere or amounts to anything. It doesn't play any role in the plot. It's not connected to anything else in the story. Angela's disease doesn't mirror Terry's condition or link up with it thematically somehow. You could make Angela healthy and Liz her math tutor without changing anything significant in this film. And that's what I mean by mediocre. Tell Tale isn't bad, there's simply no depth or complexity or sophistication to any of it.

Which is okay. A mediocre movie is better than a bad one, but then this flick has to go and suddenly get smart. It begins to suggest that the heart isn't only using Terry for vengeance. The heart may be changing Terry into its original owner, setting up a second and more intriguing conflict. The heart isn't only taking revenge…it's also taking Terry's identity. But as that concept starts to emerge from the mire, the film abruptly turns stupid and falls into an overly melodramatic ending that only works because Tell Tale violates its central premise. All of the supernatural powers the heart has demonstrated throughout the story are pounded away by the Almighty Plot Hammer and Terry is left a helpless victim before his enemies because writer David Callaham apparently couldn't figure out a way to write a climax that didn't involve one cliché after another.

All of the actors here do good work, with Josh Lucas exceeding the barren script to create believable relationships for Terry with both Angela and Liz. Lena Headey admirably soldiers through a typically thankless girlfriend role and looks amazing. Brian Cox is possibly the best thing in the production as a cynical, defeated cop given new hope by the unbelievable until he's betrayed by a crushingly trite motivation. And director Michael Cuesta does a perfectly acceptable job.

It's dispiriting turn at the end leaves Tell Tale a sub-mediocre 90 minute movie that could have been a worthwhile 2 hour flick if it had followed through on its potential. It didn't, so it's not worth your while

There were many Tell Tale signs that this was a turkey

[bigdarvick · 5/10 · 29 January 2010]

It wasn't awful in the Ed Wood sense of the word awful. It just draaaagged-- as if the actors had taken some very strong downers. The dialog was unintentionally funny, because it was so predictable and not too well written--plus, the lead actor who played the single dad named Terry, had this "I'm scared" look on his face throughout at least 75% of this film. For the remaining 25% of the movie, he looked like as though he was always about to burst into tears.

Loosley (an understatement) based story on Poe's The Tell Tale Heart. This is a prime example of ruining a literary masterpiece of horror. Poe,(if alive)would've driven a stake through the screenwriter's heart, then buried him under the floor boards. The flick portrayed the story as kind of a horror, suspense, action mish mosh. Unfortunately, there was little of any horror, suspense or action. It had the overall feel of some "made for TV" mega flop. In the film, there was a surprise here and there, but no big deal. We've seen 'em before in other movies. Nothing seemed to gel here, it was like eating runny jello in it's early cooling stages before it firms up. It's all sloppy and difficult to get on a spoon to eat. Too frustrating and not worth the effort. Watch this movie only if you are on Quaaludes.

a B category film

[is_fixx · 4/10 · 8 January 2010]

Well the movie is not great, but not the worst there is. Terry, is a single dad, taking care of his 10 year old daughter Angela who is suffering from a rare disease, Terry himself being recovering after a heart transplant. Step by step he notices changes in his behavior and actions, and his pulse starts to accelerate when he encounters some people at the clinic he had the transplant. He also has flashbacks and memories of the one who donated the heart. After making some research on his own, he finds that his donor was murderer during a possible robbery, but the suspects were never found. Putting things together, he realizes that 4 employees from the clinic were involved in murdering his donor and he starts to take revenge against them, being lead by his heart impulses. The action is quite thrilling, but the lines are dull, and some scenes maybe too gore. Well.. that's almost it, the end is quite surprising leaving the audience in doubt.

Better than you think!

[rossp23 · 7/10 · 28 January 2010]

First off, this is not any kind of interpretation of Poe's story; Modern or otherwise. The only thing similar is that the main character can hear a heart beat, sometimes. Suspense is held throughout the movie! It held my full attention and I couldn't wait to see what happened next. That's all I will say about the actual plot to not spoil anything. There is graphic violence, and overall the film has a depressing mood to it. Why then did I give a 7? The acting by everyone is great..except for the English doctor's! it was horrendous! Her lines sucked and she made me feel awkward. So bad that it takes away from the rest of the movie. Overall, a good flick to check out.

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

[KineticSeoul · 5/10 · 11 February 2013]

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

Don't compare this TV writer's screenplay to Poe.

[newby_rox3 · 7/10 · 8 February 2010]

******* DEFINITE MAJOR SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW ******

Single dad Terry (Josh Lucas) lives with his young daughter Angela (Beatrice Miller) who has a rare terminal disease. Terry has had a recent heart transplant, to which he seems to have adapted healthily, but he slowly becomes consumed by the tortured persona of the heart's donor through the extraordinary heart that follows no law of nature, science or physics.

The donor was a terminally ill man who'd put his name on an organ donor list and was then prematurely murdered by organ harvesters. He died watching them murder his wife too, which gives the film its impetus.

Terry trudges through the film, coping with his psychoses, blackouts, and flashbacks of the donor's murder scene. He finds out the identities of his donor and those involved in the transplant. Discovering in a news article that the donor was murdered, he then seeks the bad guys.

The film has its "Death Wish" moments as Terry is quietly egged on to avenge the still-unsolved murder by the annoying detective (Brian Cox) assigned to the original homicide. As the bad guys start to die, the detective has enough evidence to bring Terry in, but actually aids Terry because he has his own reason for seeing vengeance meted out. The film tends to the morose, as Terry inexplicably morphs into a schizoid, psychological mess, struggling through his new quest. Yet there are uplifting scenes of the star's relationships with his daughter and girlfriend.

The dialog tends to drag. The plot and characters can become fairly unbelievable. Despite decent action several times I viewed the actors as if I were on a distant treetop, wondering at the lack of a sense of thrill or horror, and at how remarkably unscary and un-engrossing this film got.

Terry carries the burden of the driven, tormented heart recipient -- barely -- yet his character's dialog is handled in a heavy-handed, insensitive manner. The acting of Lena Headey as his girlfriend Elizabeth, a caring, no-nonsense physician and lover, is enjoyable. But when Headey is forced to watch horrific surgical procedures performed on her beloved Terry she is dead-pan. She may have picked up this stoic behavior from repeatedly watching Summer Glau get blown to bits in last TV season's "Terminator - Sarah Connors Chronicles," canceled after one season. The attractive Headey started acting as an adult 20 years ago, has worked mostly in television, and as far as I can tell has had a less-than-earth-shattering career, despite the proclivity of directors to cast her in tight jeans.

For the vengeance to have been more credible and make more sense there should have been a stronger, more interesting, contemporaneous tie-in to the harvester ringleaders, including the surgeon. Perhaps this part could have been turned out to be Terry's cold-blooded cardiologist. Or even Elizabeth.

Ironically in the end it's revealed that the heart was ordered up by Elizabeth, who was treating Terry's daughter and became attached to her -- Elizabeth didn't want Terry to exit this planet quite so soon. She'd asked dodgy co-workers at the hospital to get her a heart, "no-questions-asked," which Terry is not too happy to hear.

This ending and the final surgery was a stretch but I enjoyed it. I also enjoyed the film's rudimentary ethics question of whether murder can be condoned if it benefits the perpetuity of family. Terry seems by then to have completely adopted the victim's loss and sense of right and wrong, and it trumps his love for Elizabeth and his desire to have his daughter taken care of. Another view might be that his HEART was letting its love for its donor's wife trump everything.

The rental didn't have captioning, which made Headey hard to understand, since she spoke quickly and with an English accent. This is true of some of the other dialog.

Filmed in gorgeous Providence, Rhode Island.

I wouldn't compare this to Poe though I admit that -- for a sadistic heart thief -- death by defibrillator is a poetic one.

Great take on an Edgar Allen Poe story

[CAMACHO-4 · 6/10 · 25 May 2010]

I have to admit when I first heard about this film I was very skeptical, seeing as Edgar Allen Poe's story was one of my favorites growing up. Tell Tale takes the original Poe idea and successfully expands on it, giving it a modern day twist.

The film follows a man who has recently received a heart transplant from a person who was brutally murdered for their organs. The story's main character soon begins an investigation that challenges his very sanity.

Josh Lucas as the lead does an excellent job. Lucas who has a background of starring in indie horror films like Session 9, delivers yet again with a solid performance the viewer can identify with.

Tell Tale does have some weaknesses like most indie horror films do, mainly do to budget restrictions but its a decent effort.

Overall, Tell Tale is worth watching.

Allegedly based on the Poe short story.

[krachtm · 5/10 · 19 December 2012]

The plot: a man receives a heart transplant, only to find himself forced by the donor's spirit to avenge the donor's brutal murder.

Let's be honest here. Once you find out that a person in a horror movie has had a transplant, there's only two possible ways it can go: 1) He turns into a serial killer or 2) He's forced to solve the mystery / avenge the death of the donor. That's it. Those are the only two possible plots allowed by hack screen writing convention. Sometimes, if you're Asian, you're allowed to see ghosts, but that's an Asian-only power.

Now, I could be wrong, but I don't remember anyone going on a rampage of vengeance in The Tell-Tale Heart. In fact, as I recall, it's purely a tale of psychological horror. Tell Tale, on the other hand, is pretty much a Death Wish ripoff, with a few cheesy elements of Body Parts grafted on. There's also some filler side-stories involving a romance, a disabled daughter, and a dogged cop.

Tell-Tale isn't all bad. It's actually fairly enjoyable, if you're willing to overlook the more clichéd, derivative elements and focus on what does work. In the end, it's basically just violent exploitation. If you're looking for something more than that, then I don't think you'll like Tell Tale very much. It has moments where it rises above that, but then it abandons them and sinks right back down again. As other reviewers have noted, it can be frustrating seeing the movie that could have been.

I'd watch it again!

[beverlyhellbillys · 9/10 · 1 February 2010]

I picked this up at Blockbuster over the weekend (because I think the lead man, Josh Lucas, is heart-stopping handsome--no pun intended!), and I was quite pleasantly surprised.

The Rhode Island setting is beautiful, the plot is definitely intriguing and the characters are dear. I really felt for this single father whose life has been turned upside-down and his morality compromised by the supernatural powers his angry heart holds.

It's true that this Edgar Allan Poe adaptation is VERY loose; it's more "inspired by" Poe's short story than anything else, but hey, the tale inspired a great film!

A Tad of Poe Goes a Long Way

[weronews · 7/10 · 24 May 2010]

After receiving a heart transplant, genuinely nice guy Lucas encounters both the very attractive female doctor who cares for his seriously ill daughter and visions of murder and mayhem he has to make sense of. Very loosely based on Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart," which is at its core an inner monologue of a mad man that lasts only a few pages, scribe Dave Callaham expanded, embellished and embroidered the story for the modern age. In the gifted hands of helmer Michael Cuesta ("L.I.E.," "Twelve and Holding," TV's "Dexter") the so-so plot gets elevated to art-house standards with Lena Headley and Josh Lucas oozing believable chemistry, and the always exceptional Brian Cox making a lasting impression as a cop with an agenda of his own. Ends as abruptly as a punch in the guts, but it's definitely worth a glimpse

Atmospheric - that's all

[bettycjung · 28 March 2018]

3/26/18. I like Lucas and Headey, but not so much this movie. While it was more atmospheric than good storytelling, you decide if that would be worth your time to watch it.

missing the guilt

[SnoopyStyle · 5/10 · 15 January 2016]

Terry Bernard (Josh Lucas) is in love with his daughter's doctor Elizabeth Clemson (Lena Headey). He had a heart transplant. He has visions from his pounding heart. He recognizes the paramedic attacking him in the vision and tries to confront him. A fight ensues and Terry accidentally kills him. He discovers the identity of the heart donor and contacts police detective Phillip Van Doren (Brian Cox) who investigated the case. He uncovers a dark conspiracy and a secret pointed right at his heart.

This is suppose to be a reworking of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart". I didn't really get the reference the first time I watched it. There's a reason for that. Terry is not guilty of anything. That's the whole point of the Poe story but I guess the writer missed that. The hearts of the two stories are completely different.

I love all three main actors but the story lacks intensity. The mystery of the story is never really in doubt. It's simply about the identity of the villains. It would have worked a lot better if Terry paid for the heart.

Painful... I should've paid more attention to the 'Unsatisfactory & Tedious' review...

[lathe-of-heaven · 3/10 · 13 October 2011]

Okay, I'm not gonna say anything at all like 'This was the worst movie ever', because it certainly is not.

BUT... 'Painful', yes. Okay, sure this is a very familiar idea, fine; that doesn't bother me at all. There are a LOT of reworked ideas that we see done over and over all the time, and for me anyway as long as the film is done well they don't ALL have to be totally original. Just about ANY story based however loosely on POE is great with me (same thing with Philip K. Dick)

BUT... That's not it. First off, I am REALLY surprised that this is a Scott Free production. I'm amazed that the Scott Brothers had anything at all to do with this director, period. And that, in my lowly and wretched opinion, is precisely what is wrong with this film. The director. I mean, couldn't ol' Ridley and Tony at least have found a better director? Geez...

One word: Amateurish.

I know that word is probably overworked here, but that truly is what I believe killed this film. Not overtly HORRIBLE, no... But, enough little things that added up so that by about 30 minutes I was so irritated, that I had indeed had quite enough.

Here are just a few things, and no, they in themselves are not really awful, but to me anyway they're so obvious that it REALLY takes you right out of the film. First off, and I KNOW many are gonna think this is really silly, but ANY director that for some bizarre unknown reason HAS to have the characters giving their dialog while they are chewing their food 4 FRIGG'N TIMES in the first 20 minutes is an amateur. I know, I know, it may seem petty, but it's like the director somehow thinks that this makes the movie more 'Real to Life' somehow as if any of us are interested in seeing about a third of the dialog given with their mouth's full (like 'Ooh, see this is what REAL people do' - uh huh... apparently they must do it frigg'n CONSTANTLY by how much it is portrayed here.

Second, and much more annoying and a sure sign to me anyway that the director is an amateur (BTW, when I use 'amateur', I mean in this context an UNTALENTED amateur - many first time 'amateur' directors CAN be absolutely brilliant!) is when the sound design is SO horribly UNnatural that every little rustle of paper and every little movement is amplified and raised to ridiculously artificial levels. And God forbid anyone should poor a drink clear across the room without the ear shattering sound of the liquid hitting the glass (Oh yeah, VERY realistic there...) Like I said, Amateur Time... (Now, I admit that these two areas regarding the 'sound' particularly annoy me - perhaps they wouldn't bother someone else as much)

Next, the script itself is really trying. And I don't mean 'Trying' as in really making an attempt either. First, the little girl (who is very cute and lovely, BTW) spouts these completely unrealistic lines that a six year old would never likely say. And DON'T get me started on the 'romantic' interplay between the two leads; can you say 'AWKWARD'...?

So, it honestly is a shame that this film wasn't placed in MUCH better hands; even with the moderately painful dialog, at least with a good director, it could have been possible to improve the quality and bring out better performances. Then, perhaps this movie might have had a chance to be quite good. But no...

Sadly, in a word...

Painful...

Grizzly and Disturbing...Disconnected and Vague

[LeonLouisRicci · 6/10 · 26 September 2013]

This one feels disconnected and rambling at times and at other times it is a rather effective Horror Movie with enough interest to keep things pumping along. The exposition is the trouble in this sometimes disturbing display that could have been cooked up by an early David Cronenberg.

Things are a bit unclear at times and some more clarity and explanations are called for as the separation between the Audience and the Film oscillates drawing one with a caring for the Characters but motivations and situations are frustratingly vague.

The transplanted Heart beneath the chest-boards of the Protagonist is the Paranormal tie to Poe, but that is inconsequential here and only matters in an off-handed Title and that's where it stays, unless you count the thump-thump-thump-thump. By itself, this is grizzly enough for Gore-Hounds and the Physical Maladies of the Father-Daughter are both empathetic and unsettling.

Worth a View for Fans of the Horrific and the Creepy, but those looking for tight Crime elements and want more definition to the proceedings may be disappointed.

Sicker than any Friday the 13th movie EVER! Great movie, but SICK!

[KilRydLoad · 5 November 2011]

I give this movie a perfect 10 out of 10 stars because it is an awesome modernization of Edgar Allen Poe's The Tell-Tale Heart...but viewer, be warned...I'm a grown-ass man of 37 years who has been watching horror movies since he was 8 years old...and I almost vomited at one point during this movie! Like my review title says, it's sicker than any Friday the 13th movie I have EVER seen, and I don't know how a certain IMDb reviewer from Argentina found this movie to be "boring"...IT IS ANYTHING BUT BORING!

SPOILER BELOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OK...what's gross about this movie? At one point, they have Josh Lucas in a bathtub covered in ice, and they start cutting out his organs...while he's awake! Seriously, I almost vomited! Just trust me when I say it's gross! Again...10 out of 10 stars due to the great plot and ingenious re-telling of the Poe classic...but NOT for the faint of heart! I won't be watching this one again...it's just too gross!!!

A Contemporary Vision Of Poe

[kdavies-69347 · 6/10 · 15 March 2016]

'Tell Tale' pays homage to one of American history's greatest horror authors, editors, and literary critics; Edgar Allan Poe. Most of us have read 'The tell-tale heart' at some point in school, and tells the tale of an unnamed narrator who slowly, and without much remorse, confesses to the murder of his employer - the man with the 'evil eye'. It was (and is) considered one of the most horrifying tales of the macabre at that point, as the speaker describes the reasons, methods, and means of murdering his master, and the madness that eventually causes him to confess.

Although 'Tell Tale' is an interesting movie to watch, it is only loosely based on the original Poe story. They are completely different in every way, as this film is more of a strange, psychological ghost story. It is an interesting film nevertheless, but it bears no resemblance to Poe's famous short story.

The film centers on Terry Bernard, a young father, and a man who receives a much needed heart transplant just in the nick of time. Slowly his life returns to normal, he is a man in love, and a very dutiful father... but it all begins to change rapidly when he suffers from a supernatural assault on his memory. Remembrances of a man murdered, and a life not his own.

There is some really wonderful casting in this movie, especially the renowned Brian Cox, who plays a retired detective who views the whole thing so skeptically, that it's hard to understand why he would become involved until much later in the film. Josh Lucas as the lead, does a fantastic job of portraying a man who is very much being tortured, mind, body, and soul. His love interest played by Lena Heady (of Game Of Thrones fame), is a very welcome addition. Her devotion to him wavers at times due the subsequent changes in the man she loves, but she carries an immense secret throughout the movie.

Overall, it's a very unique take on Poe's work, yet I would say only mildly influenced by it. It could be rather predictable at times, but it is well acted throughout.

6/10

The heart wants what it wants

[movieman_kev · 7/10 · 3 June 2012]

Bearing only the most tenacious of links to the Poe story, Josh Lucas is convincing enough, nonetheless, as Terry, ,a single dad who has a desperate need to find out where his new heart has come from. A quest that leads him further down the rabbit hole of murder. Brian Cox is, as always, a joy to watch. And although the ending is foreseeable, There're just enough twists and turns along the way to keep my interest piqued and, unlike many films I've seen in the past, after the movie was over I didn't feel like I wasted my time.

My Grade: B-

Where I saw it: Show time Beyond

Great modern interpretation

[aqos-1 · 8/10 · 11 January 2010]

While this is not the story Poe wrote, it is a great modernized remake of it. In Poe's story, the man has committed a murder and the beating of a heart drives him insane. In this movie, the lead man has received a heart transplant and it has the mind of it's donor. It leads the recipient to specific people which helps him learn more about where his heart came from, the people that made it possible and the means by which it was obtained. Some actual recipients have been known to take on some of the characteristics of their donors and this is where this movie takes us. When a heart transplant occurs, do we question who it came from or just be happy to have it. In receiving this heart, the recipient is able to right some wrongs for the donor. I was pleased with this movie and thought it was well conceived.

The heart is wrathful above all things

[Coventry · 6/10 · 11 April 2023]

This one got promoted to me because I'm a huge Edgar Allan Poe fanatic, and yes, the story is loosely based on the immortal "The Tell-Tale Heart". VERY loosely based, that is. In Poe's short story, a murderer's guilty conscious causes him to hear his victim's beating hard through the wooden floor where he hid the body. In Michael Cuesta's "Tell-Tale", a donor heart manipulates its new owner to hunt down the people who killed the original owner and his wife. That's quite different, and one could easily also state the plot bears also resemblance to - say - Maurice Renard's "The Hands of Orlac".

That said, "Tell-Tale" is interesting enough to watch without linking it to Poe or any other classic novelist. The plot is far-fetched and implausible, but if you manage to look beyond that, it's a compelling thriller with sufficient action, suspense, and a handful of genuinely macabre and grueling horror moments. Any movie featuring clandestine organ trafficking, a grumpy Brian Cox, and random people getting pushed in front of trains must be worth a peek, no?

A Strange Left-Handed Kind of a Movie, a Good B Movie

[m10001 · 6/10 · 20 March 2010]

After watching a lot of movies shot in Canada for the tax credit, I thought this was another one of them. Providence is a strange looking place, and except for the capitol building, it looked like Canada to me. I am glad to have gotten to see what it looks like. It's kind of disappointing that it turns out to look like some place not so much different from Quebec, down to the French business names. A movie about vigilantism usually gets its tension from the conflict between the morality of the vigilante's actions and the prudence of having and using a legal system. This movie tends to minimize even the imprudence of vigilante action, which waters down his desperation and the tension in the film. The continuity of this movie is noticeably off. The protagonist's hair style is noticeably different between one scene and the next one in continuity. Josh Lucas's performance is narrow in range. So is Brian Cox's, but that may be attributable to the murkiness of his motivation in the script. Lena Hedley's performance is spellbinding. She's a convincing medical expert, always dignified and caring, but a passionate lover. Beatrice Miller's a cute kid and a good actor.

The heart is a vengeful hunter

[sol1218 · 7/10 · 14 March 2010]

***SPOILERS*** Updated version of Edger Allen Poe's 1843 horror classic the "Tell Tale Heart" the film "Tell-Tale" takes place in modern Providence Road Island involving heart transplant recipient Terry Bernard,Josh Lucas. Since his heart transplant Terry has been having nightmares of him being brutally murdered by a gang of home invaders together with his wife.

It's when Terry is getting a checkup at the Providence Hospital where his heart transplant operation was preformed that he spies on his medical records telling him that the person who's heart was donated to him was murder victim Jean P. Viellard! It just so happens that the EMS worker who was at the scene of Viellard's murder was Kevin Stanovich, Jamie Harrold, who works in the very hospital where Terry got his heart transplant! Terry becomes so obsessed in finding out about the person who's heart is keeping him alive that he gets in touch with the detective in charge of the investigation of the Viellard murder Phil Van Doren, Brian Cox, whom as it later turns out knows a lot more about the case then his report on it indicates!

In the film we also have Terry's seven year old daughter and the apple of his eye Angela, Beatrice Miller, who's suffering from an incurable bone disease who in all likeliness will not survive adulthood. There's also Terry's live-in girlfriend Elizabert Clemson, Lena Headly, a doctor at the Providence hospital where he was operated on. It's the sweet loving and caring Elizabeth who's been giving Terry the very vital emotional support that he needs to get over his obsession over who's heart, that's keeping him alive, it is that's pumping inside him.

***SPOILERS*** As we and Terry soon find out the circumstances that lead to his heart transplant were not quite as simple as he at first imagined! He in fact got his heart through an underground criminal organ donation racket that originated right inside the hospital where he was a patient in! It was then that the mild mannered and wimp like Terry subconsciously tracked down those who murdered his heart donor and his wife and exacted brutal justice on them!***MAJOR SPOILER*** The biggest shock off all for Terry was saved for the end of the movie: In just who was unknowingly responsible for the Vieillard murders and the very sinister and selfish, as well as monetary, reasons behind them!

P.S To show you just how incredibly tense and disturbing the film "Tell-Tale" really is at it's premier showing at the Tribica Cinima in New York City on April 24, 2009 a person watching the movie almost dropped dead from from sheer fright, he was later revived by members of a local hospital EMS unit, some 15 minutes before the movie Tell-Tale ended. This had the showing,together with the films surprise ending, postponed for some 90 minutes until the man, with the help of the EMS personnel, was able to regain consciousness!

Refreshing outlook on The Tell Tale Heart

[kyletrulin · 9/10 · 9 February 2010]

Tell Tale is a modern adaptation of Poe's The Tell Tale Heart. This movie contains all aspects of an independent hit film. Characters undergo change, there is conflict and resolution, and a twist all the way through to keep you on the edge of your seats til the end. I enjoyed watching Terry slowly put together the pieces of his mystery heart as he also tries to maintain his sanity and take care of his daughter. This movie takes on more of the thriller aspect than a horror as Poe intended but I feel writing it as a thriller did Poe justice. Since it was an adaptation I feel the direction the film went was justified. I would definitely recommend this movie to all and would watch it again.

"Yeah, that's one helluva ticker"

[jfff7773 · 8/10 · 17 December 2009]

This is a very good flick on many levels. First of all, Josh Lucas is great in the lead role and this is the 1st time I've seen him as the main man in a flick. He does a more than credible job as the man with the transplanted heart. Lena Heady and the always fantastic Brian Cox round out a great cast. Second, Tell-Tale recalls the best of Asian thrillers,like "The Hand" and "The Eye" that also had great remakes. Thirdly, the storyline has enough twists and turns in it to distinguish itself from story lines of a similar nature like the aforementioned flix and others. This is the kind of material that it's easy to get carried away with, but everyone ,from Director Cuesta on down, underplays it just enough to make the movie a highly enjoyable watch.

Pretty well-done...

[MarieGabrielle · 8/10 · 7 March 2012]

An obvious re-make of the Poe story, there is good suspense here and Josh Lucas makes the character noteworthy and sympathetic.

There is a side-story with his daughter also being sick as he is recipient of a heart transplant. Lucas begins to investigate the death of his donor Jean Vielliard, whom he finds out murdered himself and his wife. Brian Cox is very good as usual, as a detective who is aware that suspicious deaths are happening around the hospital.

While the story has been done, this has a decent twist, a good scene with Dallas Roberts as an evil transplant surgeon, and overall interesting viewing.

Anyone interested in the actual Edgar Allen Poe story should watch the Vincent Price film, and also there was a very good version on PBS in the late 80's starring Treat Williams as the murderer. Worth viewing and a good tale. 9/10.