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.
Comment
12/22/06
The Secret Life of Words (2006)
69
%
Tomatometer
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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
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
07/25/08
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 accepting and recommending the whole package.
12/20/06
"The Secret Life Of Words" manages to mesmerize and engage, if not fully involve.
08/11/06
The true force of The Secret Life of Words, as would be appropriate, is encapsulated almost completely in its strong dialogues.
09/19/05
A serious, heartfelt piece from a filmmaker concerned with human rights issues.
08/04/06
Director Isabel Croixet creates an intriguing, enclosed world aboard the ship
12/19/06
Coixet is an adult-contemporary visualist whose films are almost always saved by the great performances she coaxes out of her actors.
11/25/06
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 one you won't soon forget.
12/15/06
Un drama intimista sobre el peso del pasado, la soledad, y la necesidad de sanar heridas profundas. Excelentes actuaciones de Sarah Polley y Tim Robbins.
09/21/06
A compelling drama about a traumatized young woman who keeps to herself and finds a way out of silence by sharing her secret with someone who cares.
12/14/06
Polley not only speaks volumes with her wary, hooded eyes and closed body language, she provides the silent emotion anchor the movie badly needs.
08/04/06
Can a single scene save a movie? An hour and 20 minutes into The Secret Life of Words, Sarah Polley delivers a halting, evocative 10-minute monologue that finally unlocks the mystery behind her guarded character.
12/13/06
You never know what makes a person act strangely until, given the rapport another can establish, the truth comes out tohelp liberate--as it does nicely in this film.
12/11/06
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.
12/14/06
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
Sarah Polley gives a wonderfully searching performance, as a woman in a state of extreme isolation.
08/04/06
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
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
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 CriticLatest News for The Secret Life of Words
December 19, 2006:
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