It featured truly interesting characters, and dealt with a subject that most of us wonder about, but generally never act in…

Funny, realistic, well acted, emotional, and passionate in equal measure.

-Excerpts from IMDB reviews

To enjoy Nothing to Hide, you have to suspend your belief to enjoy the scenario. There is no way on God’s earth that a group of couples would agree to this game. -Daniel Hart (Ready Steady Cut)

Nothing to Hide certainly grows more and more compelling as the aforementioned game adopts progressively salacious qualities – which ensures that the picture’s midsection boasts a sporadically spellbinding quality that proves impossible to resist. –Reel Film Reviews

Le Jeu (“the game”) is a French film (on Netflix); it’s a remake of an Italian film. One of the ensemble cast is Berenice Bejo, the talented and gorgeous co-lead of The Artist (2015). FYI: The director of that Oscar-winning film is Bejo’s husband, Michel Hazanavicius. There is also a Mexican version of this movie- Perfectos Desconocitos (Perfect Strangers)- currently playing in limited release at U.S. theaters. To play the game, 7 close friends (3 couples) put their cell phones in the middle of the table during dinner party, and when an email, text, or call pops up, they MUST reveal who and what it was. Yikes!

The couple hosting the dinner party are a well-to-do/sophisticated professional couple in their 40s- a plastic surgeon named Vincent (Stephane De Groodt) and his psychologist wife Marie (Bejo). They have a 17 y.o. daughter- Margot (Fleur Fitoussi)- who is going to a party w/ her friends. Their marriage seems to have grown cold/distant. Somewhat neurotic businessman Marco (Roschdy Zem) and his (heavy drinking) wife Charlotte (Suzanne Clement) have been married 15 yrs; Marco’s mother lives w/ them and helps w/ their two young kids. Charlotte resents her MIL who is critical of her choices. A handsome taxi driver, Thomas (Vincent Elbaz), and his bubbly hairdresser wife, Lea (Doria Tillier), are newly married and seem VERY much in love. They can’t keep their hands off each other- it’s somewhat awkward for the others. The one single friend, Ben (Gregory Gadebois), is a gym teacher who recently lost his job and is dating for the first time (after his divorce). Though everyone was looking forward to meeting his new lady, Ben didn’t bring her (saying she had stomach flu).

We learn that the men have been friends since childhood (35 yrs); their wives seem to be close also. They drink wine, tell jokes (incl. insulting each other), and eat foie gras (which is a luxury food made from liver of fattened duck or goose) and different types of cheese. Marie proposes they play the game, which brings out secrets (big and small), lies, and drama! Ben, for a while, tries to be the peacemaker among the group. He hopes to get some photos of the gang (w/ the eclipse moon occurring that night).

This movie poses MANY questions! Are cell phones ruining interpersonal relationships? Should we accept out bodies as they are, or work to improve them (incl. w/ plastic surgery)? How well do you know your spouse/partner? If something is left unsaid, is it just as bad as a lie? How well do we relate to our children? In one (particularly touching scene), after Margot calls Vincent, he gives his daughter some GREAT advice re: her personal life.