The Secret Life of Words (2005) Reviews

• This film just screened as part of Brisbane International Film festival (Australia). I was truly devastated.

  stefan-t2006-08-11

  I understand the commentary about the revelation of pain but the most significant 'lesson' for me was the insidious horror of war - in a film without bloodshed - and obviously the lingering effects of man's inhumanity to man. The slow reveal of the characters' backgrounds crept up on me and to my surprise left me absolutely gutted at the film's conclusion -and for some time after. I was left with a feeling of emotional and physical grief that i have not felt since my father died - the uncontrollable tide of internal pain. While a completely different genre, it reminded me of Sophie's Choice but in comparison made Streep's horror look like a walk in the park. Polley is amazing. What human's do to each other is tragic beyond description. And yet, we continue to torture our fellow humans and apparently fail to learn from our mistakes.

• Good and Underrated

  slake092006-06-11

  Great performances, an original idea, good script - it's just a great movie, which nobody I know has seen. I have no idea why this one didn't get better distribution, it certainly deserves it. The little quirks of the characters liven up the story, as does the interaction between Polley's disturbed nurse and Robbin's rough patient. Although you could see the ending coming a mile away, that was fine, as it seemed that was what was supposed to happen. This is a good one when you're in the mood for a somewhat dark drama with romantic overtones. The romance doesn't get too much in the way of the drama, the drama doesn't go overboard into melodrama.

• Secret's Poetry

  efewebber2005-10-23

  I went to see this last Isabel Coixet's movie three hours ago and its beautiful and powerful story is still bouncing in my head... the sea, Tim Robbin's eyes, Hanna's beautiful voice and her intense way of holding her feelings, Simon's delightful food in the middle of nowhere.. The way it is conceived is somehow simple, a mysterious woman, in my opinion extremely well resolved by Sarah Polley, happens to arrive to a remote place where a bunch of loners have just had a deep dramatic experience. As explicitly mentioned in the movie, 'God makes them..' ('Dios los cria'.., in Spanish), and so as she gets there she expands and relaxes in this environment where no one really expects anything from anybody. The takes are so beautiful, the thousand different feelings that the same isolated landscape in the middle of the sea projects through the movie is unbeatable. The cast of characters is solid, and the supporting characters are developed enough so as to allow the viewer to understand, in basic terms, what brought them there. Finally, the use of Tom Waits for the final transition is sublime! but, yeah, how could it not be? Tom Waits's music is the music for these films where the very deep of the heart is at stake. So, yes, I do recommend this movie for anyone who cares or wants to care or would like to be able to care about people who have been profoundly wounded at some point. And this, I am afraid, hopefully includes you. Thanks Isabel.

• Educates the Viewer, Makes You Feel...Thank God At Least Almodovar Remembers What A Movie is Supposed to Do.

  amaudet-22007-01-13

  The film has a slow start, and even as you watch it you wonder why the character Joseph as played by Tim Robbins is in such a drastic state. In medical terms, he doesn't appear like a critical burn patient. But it helps the story. I avoided this movie in the theaters because it is so deeply provocative and I knew it would require a lot of energy to watch. Now that I've seen it, I am honored to have had the experience. It made me feel, and made me remember a war that we have essentially forgotten. I saw a bunch of posts here talking about the lack of romance. It is not a romance. Romance is for movies that cast Jennifer Anniston in the leading lady role. This is a love story, one that breaks your heart but also mends it. The main character tends to fall for attached women, and in the end he learns the real definition of attachment. When you face an adversary that can't be touched or even seen. Some might say that is the true definition of fear. The girl he falls for gives up her comfort of silence to love him in return. What is more of a love story than that? If you haven't seen this movie, run out now. Put it in your Netflix queue. Harass your local video store if they don't carry it. Then sit down and watch it - by yourself. Then decide if you're like Martin, a person in the world to be envied because they see the faults of the world. The huge chasms where the important things fall and try to catch them even though their hands are so small.

• Not the most social film in the world

  KuRt-332006-05-14

  I have a feeling this may be one of those movies like 'The Goddess of 1967', a movie people will either love (for its beauty) or hate (and claim it's hollow trash that pretends to be intellectual). 'La Vida' is a movie that's largely based on an oil rig. An explosion has occurred, killing one guy and badly injuring a man who tried to help. The problem is: where can you find a nurse that wants to work on an oil rig? Enter Hanna Amiran, a deaf girl who has worked in a factory for four years without taking a day off. Now Hanna has been forced by the unions to take some time off. Hanna, seemingly unaware of what a vacation is, books herself a stay in a shabby hotel and is eating Chinese food when she overhears a man who's working for the oil company: "Where can we find a nurse that wants to work on an oil rig?" Hanna goes up to him and says: "I'm a nurse." Hanna is not the most social person in the world. That she's deaf is helpful: if she doesn't want to communicate she turns off her hearing aid. Which makes her an ideal person to work on an oil rig: the captain, the cook, the biologist... all of them are pretty introvert. The thing is: when a new person is brought to the oil rig, they do want to have some social contact. But not Hanna. She's even less revealing to Josef, the man she has to nurse. Josef is badly burnt and because of the fire has lost the ability to see for a couple of weeks. Not being able to see anything, he wants to talk the whole time. Which seems to upset Hanna. She tells him his name is Cora, she lies about the colour of her hair... Throughout the movie you'll see the secretive layers of Josef and Hanna peel off. And all of it will come to a painful climax long before the movie ends. One of the other people on the oil rig is Simon (Daniel Mays of 'Funland'), who's sent to study the waves violently bashing against the rigs. In his own time he also studies mussels (which are affected by the pollution) and hopes that one day when the oil has been pumped out of the sea the rigs will be used to make the water cleaner. That is the bit that makes me feel some will dismiss this movie as pretentious nonsense. Hanna's history, which I won't reveal, is also a heavy subject. And yes, maybe this movie wants too much, but Coixet does manage to find a setting to make her story work and enough setting to back it up convincingly. Maybe the movie ends a bit too positive, but after what we've heard it's okay to lose reality and dream for the best. Polley and Robbins are very good, as are the rest of the supporting cast. The childish voice-over you hear at the beginning and the end of the movie has raised a couple of questions on internet fora as to which character it is. Some of the comments on those fora made me want to see the movie again. Which, whatever way you put it, is always a good sign. It's hard to describe this movie as we're not dealing with 'actions', but rather the 'aftermath of actions'. Which is why the movie is both silent and talkative. Which is why we're voyeurs trying to peel off the layers too. The best (and possibly the only) way to describe this movie is by using one word: intense.