No Clue is a 2013 Canadian comedy-mystery film directed by Carl Bessai and written by and starring Brent Butt alongside Amy Smart and David Koechner.
The film follows Leo Falloon, the unassuming owner of a small business in Vancouver that sells branded tchotchkes to corporate clients. One day, a woman named Kyra walks into his office and tearfully asks him to locate her missing brother, a wealthy and famous video game designer. Smitten with her, Leo doesn't have the heart to tell her that the private investigator's office is actually across the hall, so he agrees to try and solve the mystery and quickly becomes entangled in a web of lies, deceit, murder, revenge and financial impropriety.
The film was Brent Butt's first feature-length starring role, coming after the success of his Sitcom Corner Gas and the cancellation of his next series Hiccups.
This film provides examples of:
- Affectionate Parody: Brent Butt is a big fan of Film Noir, and set out to make a comedy movie that was true to the dark, gritty aesthetic instead of being "zany wacky".
- Artistic License – Geography: Kyra tells Leo that Miles's house is in "the north end of the city"; though Vancouver does have residential areas along its northern edge, its geography is usually thought of as being divided between east, west and sometimes south. Possibly justified in that Kyra is actually an itinerant thief and probably isn't that familiar with Vancouver. What's more, Leo seems to drive there from Gastown via the Cambie Street Bridge, which heads due south.
- Becoming the Boast: Leo starts off the film by lying about being a private investigator, then proceeds to actually solve the mystery.
- The Cameo: Nancy Robertson, Brent Butt's wife and co-star on Corner Gas and Hiccups, plays the woman at the supplier company that Leo calls for information about matchbooks.
- Delivery Guy Infiltration: Leo pretends to deliver water cooler jugs to Miles' game studio in order to snoop through the offices.
- Everybody Knew Already: It's revealed near the end of the movie that Kyra never actually thought Leo was a private detective.
- No Communities Were Harmed: Averted; while it's not mentioned out loud until the film's final scene, there's no effort to hide the fact that the movie was filmed and set in Vancouver, Canada. The only real liberty taken is that business licenses are shown to be issued by an entity called Metropolitan Vancouver, when in reality they're issued by the City of Vancouver.
