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Sarah Polley, Tim Robbins, Julie Christie, Javier Cámara, Sverre Anker Ousdal ... see more see more... , Steven Mackintosh , Danny Cunningham , Leonor Watling , Dean Lennox Kelly , Eddie Marsan , Daniel Mays , Emmanuel Idowu

Writer-director Isabel Coixet's (My Life Without Me) beautifully wrought chamber drama The Secret Life of Words opens on Hanna (Sarah Polley), a laconic, backward and introverted girl in her early '30... read more read more...s, quietly drowning in her own isolation. Partially deaf from working an untold number of hours in a loud factory, Hanna must wear a hearing aid. When her supervisors -- deeply concerned about the four years that have lapsed in Hanna's life without a break -- force her to go on holiday for a month, she hesitantly takes off for a coastal village in the north of Ireland. Once there, she decides to dine in a local restaurant, and overhears, by chance, a telephone conversation conducted by Victor (Eddie Marsan), regarding an accident on a nearby oil rig that he precipitated, which left a victim, Josef (Tim Robbins) in its wake. Hanna tells Victor that she is a nurse, and is instantly flown to the rig to treat the bedbound Josef -- temporarily blind from extensive cornea damage, and his body blanketed with severe burns. She also encounters the structure's motley and eccentric band of workers -- from ecologist Martin (Daniel Mays), who spends his time studying mutated mussels that collect on the ship's base and the waves that strike the side of the rig, to Josef, to chef Simon (Javier Camára), who prepares "gourmet" food no one else can stand, to Dimitri (Sverre Anker Ousdal), an elderly gentleman who is as much of a loner as Hanna. As Hanna begins to foresee a new place for herself among these individuals, a relationship gradually develops between Hanna and Josef, who holds his new friend rapt with lyrical, evocative, magisterial tales from his past -- unknowingly drawing Hanna, one step at a time, toward inner joy, self-expression, and revelation of her own sad and complex story. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

Flixster Users

86% liked it

6,937 ratings

Critics

71% liked it

38 critics

Unrated, 1 hr. 52 min.

Directed by: Isabel Coixet

Release Date: December 22, 2006

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DVD Release Date: May 8, 2007

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Flixster Reviews (585)

  • jjnxn
    April 4, 2012
    jjnxn
    A worthwhile film but that doesn't mean that it's an enjoyable movie viewing experience.
  • dreamfaeries
    April 4, 2012
    dreamfaeries
    Not being much of a fan of Polley, this movie breaks all the rules. Wonderful story and fabulous acting (especially Polley). The way it slowly tells the stories of both Hanna and Josef and their journey together just mixes so well. FABULOUS!
  • ironclad1609
    February 16, 2009
    ironclad1609
    This very calm, quiet drama tells the story of a young laconic woman working at a factory without having much of a life, being forced to take some time off for vacation where she happens to overhear an oil platform being in need of a nurse. Instead of relaxing she takes care of a... read more burn victim (Tim Robbins) who is is slowly recovering from an accident there. As she is slowly making contact with her flirty patient and the minimum crew there, she carefully seems to come out from her shell. Sarah Polley is really convincing as tortured soul with a dark secret, that is going to get revealed in the end, in a pretty gloomy and almost painful story to listen to. The fact that the movie doesn't end in despair right there but takes the tale a little further, where hope is still an option, makes it really rewarding in the end. Fine acting, an interesting and moving story, an all around convincing romance / drama.
  • puffchunk
    February 4, 2008
    puffchunk
    Tim Robbins had great dialog in this film (until the ending). A burn victim on an oil rig in the ocean, who falls in love with his war-refugee nurse Sarah Polley who shows him her cut up boobs. Turned out to be pretty great.
  • SilentWarProductions2009
    September 27, 2007
    SilentWarProductions2009
    Directed by: Isabel Coixet.
    Starring: Sarah Polley, Tim Robbins.

    I had heard prier to watching this film that the audience is split down the middle, some who say is intellectual, complex and very powerful and others say its hollow.....I don't quite ag... read moreree with either of those, I'm somewhere in the middle.

    The story starts with an oil rig accident in the middle of the sea, a man is badly burnt and requires a new nurse. Then we are introduced to Hannah, a very quiet, strange, solitary woman who works in a factory, she is never late and never has had a holiday in years, when the boss gives her the offer to take one, she refuses, instead she overhears about the nurse position in a bar and she takes it. Hannah tends to this man, Josef and he slowly breaks her silence. I personally felt that director/writer Isabel Coixet ruined the chance to make the film more than what it is, maybe I just found it hard to latch onto her narrative. I can't deny the movie shared a few shocking and unexpected powerful and moving moments, but I had a problem adapting to these characters for the first half of the film and with the pace moving slowly, I could never grasp on enough to really feel for the later scenes. The acting is top notch, Tim Robbins proves to be strong and quite humorous with the dialogue he is given and Sarah Polley deserves to be more recognised, she delivers a subtle and complex performance, when the moment is needed for her character, she delivers brilliantly.

    Many will like this film, I'm not saying I hate it, but I never grasped onto the film in the first half due to dull characters and a slow pace and when it did pick up in the second half and the characters pack a punch, it just wasn't enough for me to love. Disappointed.
  • gator681
    December 18, 2006
    gator681
    [font=Century Gothic]In "The Secret Life of Words", Hanna(Sarah Polley) is a hearing impaired immigrant living in Belfast, Northern Ireland. She has worked at a factory for four years without taking a vacation or a sick day. Even though Hanna has amassed a superb work record, s... read morehe has also been receiving a fair amount of complaints from her co-workers. So, her boss tells her to take four weeks off and go somewhere. That she does but only so far as an off-season resort town, where she can continue living her sterile life. But an accident at a nearby oil rig has killed one man and left another, Josef(Tim Robbins), too severely injured to move. When a company man is looking for a nurse to tend to him, Hanna volunteers for the job.[/font]
    [font=Century Gothic][/font]
    [font=Century Gothic]"The Secret Life of Words" is an intelligent, off-beat(I still don't get that narration), and evocative movie about survival. And no matter how much we may wish it, we are never truly alone.(Everybody has their own reason for working on the isolated oil rig.) Sarah Polley and Tim Robbins give very good performances.[/font]
  • mvieaddict
    April 4, 2012
    mvieaddict
    Sometimes people go through great amounts of pain and unbearable suffering, it takes a lot of time for them to be able to heal and go on with their lives. This movie helps us to understand that process and connect with other people's pain. It does it in a very slow pace, but that... read more's the greatness and beauty of this movie. It gives us time to understand what these people have been through and shows how important it is that we do not forget. This movie is not for people who are not sensitive to think about what happened in Yuguslavia' some years ago and what the human cruelness can reach in war times.It also shows that there is a place in a world for those that have suffered, hurt, lonely, shy. And I am grateful for this movie, it shows that there is so much more in life than words, and that we all carry a rich universe in us to be explored if we love and are loved no matter who we are and what life has put us through.
    Simply beautiful and a must to see.
  • bcavros
    September 17, 2011
    bcavros
    I loved this movie, but I can see how its not or everyone. The exceptionally subdued action serves two purposes. It is required to focus the audience on the very understated revelation of the action and it mirrors the hidden secrets that both Polley's and Robbin's characters are ... read morehiding.

    The opening ten minutes without dialogue follow Polley (without dialog through her routing working in a loud twine factory and eating the same meal (chicken, apple and rice) every day without any personnel interaction. The sound goes silent for a minute and another employee taps her shoulder and she turns up her hearing aid revealing her near complete hearing loss.

    Her attention is piqued when she overhears a man trying to find out how to get a nurse to live on an oil rig for two weeks that is shutdown after a fatal fire that leave Robbins gravely burned not stable enough for transport.

    She surprisingly explains that she is a nurse. I really enjoyed picking up on the little tidbits of information and the study of what is not said in furtherance of the action. The lack of subtly after the climax was a little let down, but over all one of the most enthralling natural character studies I've seen in a long time.
  • catlyst
    December 25, 2011
    catlyst
    a multi-layered and finely-textured character drama of two souls, lost and finally, found in the unlikeliest of places: aboard an isolated oil-rig in the middle of nowhere.

    polley, robbins and christie carry the unfurling of the story beautifully. i won't spoil it for anyone who... read more hasn't caught it, but i'd heartily recommend this movie to all. cliche disney ending aside, it soberingly reminds us to not be too crowded that we forget, and not to assume anything about the people around us.
  • sleepykiss
    March 16, 2008
    sleepykiss
    Honestly, I only watched this film because it was Almodovar produced. Is it just me or does TRobbins play the same sarcastic character in all of his movies? SPolley is wonderful. A bit wandering towards the end, but a weeper nonetheless. Watch for JChristie as the therapist.

View All The Secret Life of Words Reviews

Critic Reviews

Frank Scheck
December 30, 2006
Frank Scheck, Hollywood Reporter

The claustrophobic and artificial atmosphere of the setting is unfortunately matched by the equally artificial drama.

Lael Loewenstein
December 21, 2006
Lael Loewenstein, Los Angeles Times

There may be no young actress today better at embodying a blend of wounded innocence and stoic pride than Sarah Polley. In The Secret Life of Words, she has a part worthy of her gifts. Full Review

Andrew Sarris
December 20, 2006
Andrew Sarris, New York Observer

Though I continue to have strong reservations about the stylistic abstractions in Ms. Coixet's narrative, the performances given by Ms. Polley, Mr. Robbins and Ms. Christie take me a long way in accep...

Stanley Kauffmann
December 15, 2006
Stanley Kauffmann, New Republic

Like Ceylan -- like many a fine director -- Coixet has made her film less as a drama than as the traversal of a state of mind, a mood.

Ella Taylor
December 15, 2006
Ella Taylor, Village Voice

In due course skeletons will march out of closets, but the movie yields up its secrets with slow reluctance. Full Review

V.A. Musetto
December 15, 2006
V.A. Musetto, New York Post

Sarah Polley is such a wonderful actress, it's a shame she's not a bigger star.

Elizabeth Weitzman
December 15, 2006
Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News

Given the physical limitations of their characters, Polley and Robbins give remarkably compelling performances, and though the resolution of their slowly evolving relationship is a bit too pat, it is ... Full Review

Stephen Holden
December 14, 2006
Stephen Holden, New York Times

As its title suggests, this eccentric film written and directed by Isabel Coixet, contemplates the insufficiency of language to encapsulate traumatic experience.

Andrew O'Hehir
December 14, 2006
Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com

A tantalizing and beautiful picture made with tremendous integrity, and anchored by two marvelous performances, Isabel Coixet's The Secret Life of Words still, somehow, doesn't quite work. Full Review

Jan Stuart
December 14, 2006
Jan Stuart, Newsday

The Secret Life of Words transcends the limitations of its pat two-character-play core, becoming a deeply affecting existential drama about the healing power of communally felt pain. Full Review

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