Heartache is guaranteed. And so it is in The Secret Life of Words, a strangely beautiful film about an ugly memory that Hanna (Sarah Polley) carries for the rest of her life
Comment
07/25/08
The Secret Life of Words (2006)
69
%
Tomatometer
How does the Tomatometer work 
Reviews Counted:36
Fresh:25
Rotten:11
Average Rating:6.2/10
Consensus: The Secret Life of Words is a slow, mannered drama, but with a revelatory and powerful ending that rewards the patient viewer.
Runtime: 1 hr 56 mins
Genre: Dramas
Synopsis: THE SECRET LIFE OF WORDS, written and directed by Isabel Coixet, follows Hanna (Sarah Polley), a factory worker who lives alone in a barren apartment, wears a hearing-aid, and keeps to herself with... [More]
Starring: Sarah Polley, Tim Robbins, Javier Camara, Eddie Marsan
Director: Isabel Coixet
Reviews for The Secret Life of Words
Click to read the article
09/22/07
Can't resist the meaningful political backstory that will transform her characters into symbols--that is, into ventriloquist dummies rattling off humdrum rhetoric.
05/03/07
Can't hold the weight of its own pretensions.
03/02/07
The film succeeds mainly as a story of the connective, regenerative tissue between words and silence on the level strength of its listeners.
02/14/07
Coixet's screenplay may be a little slow in spots and someof the supporting characters are not very well drawn, but the spotlight is on the two leads, and both Robbins and Polley come through. There's some twee voiceover that mars the film's beginning and
01/11/07
The claustrophobic and artificial atmosphere of the setting is unfortunately matched by the equally artificial drama.
12/30/06
Top CriticOut in the north sea--no harbor for pain both physical and psychological--except what contact with the right human being may provide in the way of a cure.
12/27/06
What pleasure there is to be wrung from the exceptionally banal The Secret Life of Words lies in the harsh, unforgiving beauty (lyrically shot by Jean-Claude Larrieu) and wonderfully strange social life of the isolated rig.
12/22/06
Making it work onscreen requires a Herculean effort from the actors, a task to which Polley and Robbins -- as well as their supporting cast -- are more than adequately suited.
12/22/06
This thing is very, very deep. So deep in fact that getting the bends is a distinct possibility.
12/22/06
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.
12/21/06
Top CriticThough 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 accepting and recommending the whole package.
12/20/06
Director Isabel Croixet creates an intriguing, enclosed world aboard the ship
12/19/06
Meditative, slow-paced examination of how post-traumatic stress syndrome affects two troubled people who connect on a windswept oil rig in the Irish Sea.
12/19/06
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.
12/15/06
In due course skeletons will march out of closets, but the movie yields up its secrets with slow reluctance.
12/15/06
A series of conversations that are sometimes clever and sometimes feel like screenwriting exercises about the details of life, but are always well acted.
12/15/06
Far from feeling that we've been hoodwinked into watching a film with a strong social message, we can only marvel at how eloquently and incontrovertibly it states its case.
12/15/06
Sarah Polley is such a wonderful actress, it's a shame she's not a bigger star.
12/15/06
Latest News for The Secret Life of Words
December 19, 2006:
RTIndie: Suit-Seeking Bob Dylan Isn't the Only One Against "Factory Girl"
Much has been made lately of singer-songwriter Bob Dylan's demands to screen the Weinstein Co.'s upcoming Oscar hopeful, but it's only the latest in a growing trend of troubling... More...
December 14, 2006:
Critical Consensus: "Charlotte's Web" Is Good, Indeed; Smith Is Strong, "Pursuit" Less So; "Eragon" Gets Burned
This week at the movies, we've got a barnyard full of talking animals ("Charlotte's Web," starring Dakota Fanning and the voices of Julia Roberts and Robert Redford),... More...
What’s Hot On RT
Other News
Fresh Links
Featured
RT on YouTube 
Subscribe to RT's YouTube channel and don't miss a second of our cracking video content.
RT on Twitter
Follow Rotten Tomatoes and join us as we tweet about the week's releases.
IGN RSS Feeds