Movie Review for Secret Life of Words, The

Summary: Hanna, a solitary and mysterious young woman, works in a factory somewhere in Europe. She speaks to no one, eats the same thing for every meal and wears a hearing aid that she turns off to protect herself from the world. Forced by her boss to take a vacation, she travels to Northern Ireland where, on a whim, she volunteers to be a nurse on an oil rig in the Irish Sea to tend to Josef who has been burned in a flash fire. The burns have left Josef temporarily blind but in flirtatious spirits and he is eager to discover who his enigmatic nurse truly is. As Hanna tends Josef's wounds, he attempts in vain to extract information about her all the while telling her about his own troubled past. Hannah even refuses to tell Josef her real name or the color of her hair. Yet, a strange intimacy gradually develops between them and when Josef is about to be transferred off the rig, Hanna knows they may never see each other again. She decides to divulge her darkest secret, a revelation from which neither will emerge unscathed and will change their lives forever.

                         Reviews of Secret Life of Words, The
By Marcy Dermansky of About.com (7/0)
            The most satisfying romance of 2006.

By Jules Brenner of Cinema Signals (7/0)
            Out in the north sea--no harbor for pain both physical and psychological--except what contact wit...

By Gregory Kirschling of Entertainment Weekly (7/0)
            Can a single scene save a movie? An hour and 20 minutes into The Secret Life of Words, Sarah Poll...

By Walter Chaw of Film Freak Central (7/0)
            Can't resist the meaningful political backstory that will transform her characters into symbols--...

By David Noh of Film Journal International (7/0)
            Director Isabel Croixet creates an intriguing, enclosed world aboard the ship

By Jeremy Mathews of Film Threat (6/1)
            A series of conversations that are sometimes clever and sometimes feel like screenwriting exercis...

                         Reviews of Secret Life of Words, The
By Chris Cabin of filmcritic.com (7/0)
            In plain terms, it's boring, but at least the soundtrack is good.

By Kate Taylor of Globe and Mail (7/0)
            A frustrating film full of many wonderful parts that the filmmaker ultimately betrays.

By Eric Lurio of Greenwich Village Gazette (7/0)
            This thing is very, very deep. So deep in fact that getting the bends is a distinct possibility.

By Frank Scheck of Hollywood Reporter (7/0)
            The claustrophobic and artificial atmosphere of the setting is unfortunately matched by the equal...

By Bruce Kirkland of Jam! Movies (7/0)
            A serious, heartfelt piece from a filmmaker concerned with human rights issues.

By Lael Loewenstein of Los Angeles Times (7/0)
            There may be no young actress today better at embodying a blend of wounded innocence and stoic pr...

                         Reviews of Secret Life of Words, The
By Ted Murphy of Murphy's Movie Reviews (7/0)
            Coixet's screenplay may be a little slow in spots and someof the supporting characters are not ve...

By V.A. Musetto of New York Post (7/0)
            Sarah Polley is such a wonderful actress, it's a shame she's not a bigger star.

By Michelle Orange of Reeler (7/0)
            The film succeeds mainly as a story of the connective, regenerative tissue between words and sile...

By Andrew O'Hehir of Salon.com (7/0)
            A tantalizing and beautiful picture made with tremendous integrity, and anchored by two marvelous...

By Ed Gonzalez of Slant Magazine (7/0)
            Coixet is an adult-contemporary visualist whose films are almost always saved by the great perfor...

By Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat of Spirituality and Practice (7/0)
            A compelling drama about a traumatized young woman who keeps to herself and finds a way out of si...

                         Reviews of Secret Life of Words, The
By Ken Fox of TV Guide's Movie Guide (7/0)
            Far from feeling that we've been hoodwinked into watching a film with a strong social message, we...

By Enrique Buchichio of Uruguay Total (7/0)
            Un drama intimista sobre el peso del pasado, la soledad, y la necesidad de sanar heridas profunda...

By Jonathan Holland of Variety (7/0)
            Sarah Polley gives a wonderfully searching performance, as a woman in a state of extreme isolatio...

By Ella Taylor of Village Voice (7/0)
            In due course skeletons will march out of closets, but the movie yields up its secrets with slow ...

By Susan Granger of www.susangranger.com (7/0)
            Meditative, slow-paced examination of how post-traumatic stress syndrome affects two troubled peo...

By Josh Bell of Las Vegas Weekly (6/1) No reference
            Can't hold the weight of its own pretensions.

                         Reviews of Secret Life of Words, The
By Stanley Kauffmann of New Republic (6/1) No reference
            Like Ceylan -- like many a fine director -- Coixet has made her film less as a drama than as the ...

By Elizabeth Weitzman of New York Daily News (3/4) No reference
            Given the physical limitations of their characters, Polley and Robbins give remarkably compelling...

By Andrew Sarris of New York Observer (3/4) No reference
            Though I continue to have strong reservations about the stylistic abstractions in Ms. Coixet’s na...

By Stephen Holden of New York Times (6/1) No reference
            As its title suggests, this eccentric film written and directed by Isabel Coixet, contemplates th...

By Jan Stuart of Newsday (3/4) No reference
            The Secret Life of Words transcends the limitations of its pat two-character-play core, becoming ...

By Angela Baldassarre of Sympatico.ca (3/4) No reference
            "The Secret Life Of Words" manages to mesmerize and engage, if not fully involve.

                         Reviews of Secret Life of Words, The
By Geoff Pevere of Toronto Star (3/4) No reference
            Polley not only speaks volumes with her wary, hooded eyes and closed body language, she provides ...

By Harvey S. Karten of Compuserve (6/1) Not Reachable
            You never know what makes a person act strangely until, given the rapport another can establi...

By Boyd van Hoeij of europeanfilms.net (6/1) Not Reachable
            The true force of The Secret Life of Words, as would be appropriate, is encapsulated almost compl...

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Strand Releasing

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El Deseo S.A.
Mediapro

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