Great movie I loved this film. It's a very good combination of a personal drama with politics & history. Tim Robbins' performance is great. Sarah Polley is so good as she was in "My lIfe without me". I'm looking forward to seeing new films from Isabel Coixet.
95% Depression; 5% Redemption .... "The Secret Life of Words" may tax the patience and endurance of many viewers. Two forlorn individuals - Sarah Polley (Hanna) and Tim Robbins (Josef) have more baggage than an O'Hare skycap. Both are scarred, emotionally and physically.
Hanna nurses Josef after the latter is badly hurt and burned in an oil rig accident. She is a battered survivor of atrocities during strife in the Balkans. She works in a factory in Copenhagen but is aloof and distant from her co-workers. As their relationship grows and deepens, they peel back the layers and barriers they have built around their emotional lives. (Polley bears an uncanny resemblance to Uma Thurman.)
The characters - a skeleton crew - aboard the oil rig are a quirky bunch.
Perhaps 95% of this movie is a depressing downer. The closing suggests the possibility of love's healing and redemptive powers.
SSSSSSSSLLLLLLLLOOOOOOOOOWWWW paced.....
This film was hard to figure out, until the end. This was an excellent film. Gripping. Engaging. A mystery until the end. I could not predict the ending. A great film for grown-ups. Pay attention or you will miss out!Wonderful 'anti-cinematic' film Just as the title implies, this movie has a lot of dialogue and monologues--at times its structure is like an extended short story or a play. Truthfully played by Robbins and Polley--the focus of the plot--the two make an odd couple, the former a severely burned worker recovering on an oil rig; the latter, a 'refugee' from the horrors of the Yugoslavian ethnic cleansing era. He cannot see (temporary blindless) while she is hearing impaired. Each harbors secrets that get revealed as their relationship develops. Meanwhile, there is a small crew of other wounded people aboard, who also have their secrets. But what comes across to me is that they, like all of us, present a veneer to the world, which ultimately disappoints us all. Maybe the bravest can admit it. Life inside the chamber of the oil rig seems a fitting metaphor for civilization. We are able to exploit and dominate nature via technology, yet we cannot master our souls. If the viewing public were more amenable to films like this, we'd be better off.Intriguing and absorbing, truly memorable thanks in large part to a truly orgasmic performance... `The Secret Life of Words' was one of those films that just slipped in under the radar so-to-speak. I had head a lot about it and then it all but disappeared before I noticed it on the shelf at my local video store and remembered all that I had heard. I immediately grabbed the movie and I can honestly say it was well worth it. The film is a quiet film yet it speaks volumes with its emotional depth. This is of course aided strongly by the brilliant performances by the cast, especially Tim Robbins. Robbins is slowly but surely becoming one of my favorite working actors, and I know that may sound odd since he's been acting for some time now, but recently his brilliance has really come through. His performance here is no exception.
`The Secret Life of Words' follows a young woman named Hanna who is obviously stilted by events in her past that cause her to be distant from others, to be reclusive. She even admits to being somewhat prejudice and gives off the air of someone almost bothered by the people around her, thus opting to turn down her hearing aids so as not to have to listen to them talk. It's because of this persona that she's all but forced to take a vacation by her boss who doesn't want to fire her but has to confront her about the impression she leaves on her workmates. Instead of choosing a pretty place to vacate she ends up choosing to work. She overhears the need for a nurse and she takes the job. Hanna then finds herself on an oil rig off the coast of Northern Ireland taking care of Josef, a man burned badly in a fire aboard the rig. Josef is left temporarily blind yet he still is as conversational as could be. He's persistent with Hanna, trying to get her to open up and slowly the two begin to unveil just who they really are.
The film on its own is very well done, but it's really Tim Robbins who catapults this into a must see feature. His performance is so naturally inviting, so absorbing that I'm tempted to say it could be a career best for him. I love Polley, lord knows that. Her supporting performance in `The Sweet Hereafter' is one of my favorite supporting performances ever, but here I feel she's a bit miscast. She does fine, don't get me wrong, and she truly uncovers all that is Hanna. It's just that accent that I couldn't get past. I really didn't feel it was real from her. I know she must have worked hard for it, but it came off a bit too forced for me, not natural. She played her characters emotions fantastically, but she was quickly overshadowed by Robbins.
In the end, `The Secret Life of Words' is a film I'd recommend readily. It delivers on just about every front and contains one of the best performances of the past decade in my opinion. One reviewer used the word poetic when describing this film and I must agree. Writer/Director Isabel Coixet has a lot of potential and I see greatness in her future. I've yet to see `My Life Without Me', also starring Sarah Polley, but if it's anything like this film then I'll be sure to find it and watch it very soon.
