Customer Reviews
Compelling Claustrophobic Drama - By: pris, 21 Jun 2008 
"Sarah Polley gives a wonderfully searching performance, as a woman in a state of extreme isolation, in "The Secret Life of Words," a compellingly claustrophobic drama set mostly aboard an oil rig. This film tackles its big theme -- silence as a defense against tragedy -- with delicacy, sympathy & originality, sans sentimentality." Jonathan Holland
This film grabbed me & cut to my core. Immediately this young woman played by Sarah Polley spoke to me. This is an actress who can display with a flick of her hair & a non expression that something has gone terribly wrong & will never be right again. Hanna as she is known, is deaf, she lives alone, she works in a factory & has not had a sick day or a day off in 4 years. We know she eats white rice, chicken nuggets & half an apple for every meal. She has a collection of almond scented soap in her bathroom, & she uses a new bar everytime she washes her hands. This is alll we know. She is summoned to her supervisor's office & told she must take a 4 week vacation. Her non-speech & work ethic gives her fellow workers a case of nerves, she must at least act human.
Hanna goes to the coast of Northern Ireland & while eating dinner one evening she overhears a conversation that changes her life. An oil rig has had a fire, & there is a great need for a nurse to care for a burned man. She volunteers for the duty & is flown by helicopter to the oil rig.
Hanna meets her patient, Josef, played by Tim Robbins. He has corneal burns & cannot see, leg fractures & burns on his body & face, but he remains intelligent & self-deprecating. He obtained his burns by trying to save someone else. The fact is that what Hanna & Josef don't say is sometime's more significant than what they do say. Hanna maintains her stalwart composure & does not give anything away. Little by little their relationship develops & Hanna begins to open her heart & secrets, as does Josef. On one day, Hanna discloses her shattering past. Josef gathers her in his arms, & this scene is more exqisite than words can express.
The rest of the smalll crew on the rig are loners as is Hanna. They alll have their stories & the chef is the most telling. Hanna discovers that food should be tasted & enjoyed. A scene with Hanna, sitting on the stairs, devouring the rest of Josef's meal will live on. There is a sharing of respect, & Hanna has a family of sorts.
The trauma of both of these characters is lessened by their meeting. Hanna helps Josef heal & Josef helps Hanna with her emotional recovery. Josef has bones that mend & Hanna has a life opened to the world. The time comes when Josef needs more expert care, & they are both helicoptered off the rig to the city. "Hanna, Hanna,' we hear Josef yell as he is lifted into the ambulance. "Hanna,Hanna".
The soundtrack to the film is exquisite. From Clem Snide to David Byrne to Tom Waits & to Paolo Conte. Each song has its place & link the narrative as needed. It is a sound track to be played over & over again.
"Instead of being a visionary film that shows us how people behave when they have been tremendously damaged, this becomes an explanatory film that tells us that its characters have been damaged, & need love to heal them. This may or may not be true, but it's definitely a truism, & it dissolves at least some of the picture's potency & mystery into cliché." Emily Taylor
We often hear without words, & we understand through facial changes what someone is thinking. This film is the ultimate in communication without words, & when words are spoken, each of them evokes a distinct memory.
Highly Recommended. prisrob 05-24-08
The Sweet Hereafter (New Line Platinum Series)
The Shawshank Redemption (Two-Disc Special Edition)
secret human sufferings - By: Carlos Vazquez Quintana, 17 Jan 2007 Hanna is a young nurse from the old Yugoslavia. She was raped during that war while a friend was murdered by irregular soldiers.
So, almost annihilated by these terrible experiences, now she works in a factory montage chain, supposedly in Britain or Holland.
Furthermore, Hanna, under a strong depression, never takes a holiday, as his repetive task, being mostly brutishing, serves to her as a lenitive drug. But holidays are compulsory; his supervisor is pressed by the worker's syndicate & she is forced to take some weeks of accumulated holidays. Hanna however is as an orphan without his monotonous work. Then she decides to take another hard work as nurse in an oil rig from North Sea when an fire accident has happened & is temporarily closed, as weather, being very bad impedes frequently to work to the helicopters. There is Josef, a worker seriously burned in the accident played by Tim Robbins, impossible to evacuate owing the conditions & blinded.
Hanna absorbs herself in his caring work & makes an excellent task with ill people & must of alll with Josef, the most grave, which heals well & is finallly carried to a hospital in Britain. Then, he losses the path of Hanna, but when he heals completely, he searches her by alll Europe. They're not in love, his age being different, but finallly there are some lenitive for two lives plenty of pain. Excellent interpretations, direction & screenplay by a Spanish woman director.
Beautiful, Powerful, Subtle, Brilliant: A Luminous Account of the Workings of the Human Soul - By: Paul M. Bjergfelt, 25 Sep 2006 I saw The Secret Life of Words on Saturday 23rd September 2006 as part of the Copenhagen International Film Festival.
This is a truly amazing film. It is a film that covers many topics & emotions, not least the power of empathy: that mysterious ability we humans have to feel another person's pain as if it were our own. This deeply moving drama tells the story of one woman's struggle to cope with her past. It is about the power of words & about how words can become lost in a limbo of silence.
Hospital nurse, Hanna (Sarah Polley), moves out onto a oil rig to look after Josef (Tim Robbins), who, after a traumatic accident, is confined to bed with serious burns & transitory blindness. As the relationship between nurse & patient graduallly evolves, the secret layers of Hanna's past are exposed & a heartbreaking truth is revealed.
Sarah Polley gives herself completely as Hanna. It is an absolutely stunning acting performance. From the very first frame, although we barely know where this woman is from, we do know who she is. Likewise, Tim Robbins is magnificent as Josef, a man not only suffering from temporary blindness, but also a man who is waging war with the demons within himself. Julie Christie's recreation of Inge Genefke, the founder of the International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims, is sublime. She captures Inge Genefke's determined resolve, coupled with her love of humanity.
This is a film about a weighty & serious subject. However, Isabel Coixet has managed to tell it with great subtlety, finesse, warmth & even humour. The Secret Life of Words is rich with intriguing images & sounds from beginning to end. The film is a true confirmation of the transformational power of art.
So please, please, go see this film, or buy the DVD, & make sure that you tell your friends about it & that you do everything you can to promote it in the schools & colleges of the country that you live in.
Isabel Coixet was inspired to make this film after visiting the International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims (IRCT) in Copenhagen, an independent, international health professional organisation that promotes & supports the rehabilitation of torture survivors & works for the prevention of torture worldwide. This film is dedicated to founder of the IRCT, Dr Inge Genefke. Inge Genefke has spent the last 30 years tirelessly fighting for the rights of traumatised torture victims. Saturday's screening of the film at the Copenhagen Film festival was preceded by an introduction by Inge Genefke & Britta Sydhoff from the IRCT. Inge Genefke spoke of her meetings with the film's director Isabel Coixet & with actress Sarah Polley & thanked everyone involved in the making of the film.
