A good mystery is like a Rubik's Cube: Each twist of its mismatched planes brings you a little closer to that final satisfying alignment. But if and when you get there, you can't help glancing at your watch and wondering if it was worth the time and energy.

Fans of suspense novelist Harlan Coben would say yes, emphatically -- I would say yes, with reservations -- in the case of "Tell No One," French director Guillaume Canet's stylish screen rendering of Coben's international best-seller.

Our hero, or diffident anti-hero, is pediatrician Alex Beck (Francois Cluzet), who married Margot (Marie-Josee Croze), his childhood sweetheart. They were happily skinny-dipping at his lakeside retreat shortly after the wedding when she was brutally murdered (and he knocked unconscious) by a subsequently convicted serial killer.

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'Tell No One'

3 stars = Good
Ratings explained

• Starring: Francois Cluzet, Marie-Josee Croze, Kristin Scott-Thomas.
• Rating: R in nature for violence and nudity.
• Web site: 'Tell No One'

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That was eight years ago. Alex is still grieving. All of a sudden, two bodies -- and the key to Margot's safety deposit box -- are found near the scene of the crime. The case is reopened, with Alex as the prime suspect. Simultaneously, he gets a mysterious e-mail with a video clip indicating Margot is still alive, plus a warning to "tell no one" about it.

As the police arrive to arrest him at his office, Alex does exactly what he shouldn't -- jumping out a window and leading the cops on a breathless chase, zigzagging across the Paris beltway, with more than a little help from pals in the Parisian underworld. This is one fleet-footed pediatrician.

And this brooding, persecuted Cluzet is one fine actor, supported by equally effective co-stars: Croze (that wonderful speech therapist in "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly") is a deliciously enigmatic Margot. Andre Dussollier as her policeman-father plays his pivotal role sternly, while Kristin Scott-Thomas does a nice turn as an ill-fated lesbian restaurateur. But the best supporting actress is Natalie Baye as Alex's sharp, cynical lawyer.

Tales of the framed but innocent man-on-the-run have been a mystery staple at least since Hitchcock, and comparisons to "The Fugitive" (both the television series and the excellent Harrison Ford film) are inevitable. But Dr. Beck gives Dr. Kimball a run for his money. And director Canet gives his nerve-wracking tale an ominously erotic patina of corruption, with enough devious allies to match an axis of evil.

Pay close attention if you want to pass the multiple-choice quiz afterward. There's no one-armed bandit, but Canet is busier than a one-armed paperhanger with the final torrent of revelations. His film is a longish 125 minutes, all of them needed to tie up the convoluted loose ends. He does so via the villain, verbally -- which is what prevents this pleasing production from being perfect.

"Tell No One," in the end, violates the time-tested tutorial: Show, don't tell.

Opens today at the Manor and SouthSide Works; in French with subtitles.