The Secret Life of Words | 
| Director: Isabel Coixet
Actors: Sarah Polley, Tim Robbins, Sverre Anker Ousdal, Javier Camara, Danny Cunningham
Studio: Universal Studios
Category: DVD
List Price: $29.98
Buy Used: $4.68
You Save: $25.30 (84%)
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Rating:  17 reviews
Sales Rank: 44008
Format: Ac-3, Color, Dolby, Dvd, Subtitled, Widescreen, Ntsc
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Subtitled), French (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled)
Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Region: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Number Of Discs: 1
Running Time: 116 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
MPN: MCAD62100342D
UPC: 025195002813
EAN: 0025195002813
ASIN: B000NJWIPI
Theatrical Release Date: 2005
Release Date: May 8, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Studio: Uni Dist Corp. (mca) Release Date: 05/08/2007 Run time: 116 minutes Rating: Nr
Amazon.com
In the Secret Life of Words, a wounded man and a hearing impaired woman forge an unlikely relationship that transcends romance. They reach an understanding that speaks as much for the affection they hold for one another, as it does their need to simply be recognized. Academy Award winner Tim Robbins (Bull Durham, The Shawshank Redemption) stars opposite Sarah Polley (The Sweet Hereafter) in this emotional drama directed and written by Isabel Coixet (who also collaborated with Polley in My Life Without Me). Polley plays Hanna, an emotionally-stilted factory worker who is forced to take a vacation. Instead of jetting off to the Caribbean or the South of France for some sun, Hanna opts for Northern Ireland where she is hired to work as an oil rig nurse, despite the fact that she may never have actually had any medical training. Robbins portrays Josef, a chatty burn victim who is left temporarily blind, but still has enough life in him to flirt with Hanna. She would rather turn down her hearing aid and make as little contact with others as possible. Slowly, the two share secrets and help each other recover--him physically, her emotionally. While the burgeoning love story is a bit implausible, the film does a good job in exploring two characters with complicated backgrounds. --Jae-Ha Kim
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| Customer Reviews: Read 12 more reviews...
 too stupid for words October 20, 2008
Bruce Kendall (Southern Pines, NC)
2 out of 6 found this review helpful
sorry...i love most of this director's movies, but when the helicopter airlifted the nurse to the drilling site, while at the same time ignoring airlifting the patient out, this movie lost all cfredibility for me,
I'm sure the acting is excellent, the cinematagraphy et al is all first rate...but the premise took a nose dive with that one....
 I wish I could have liked this more July 30, 2008
Judith T. Krauthamer
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
The Secret Life of Words is a well intended film, but like good intentions, it gets derailed by its own earnestness. The film opens with a child's voice: are these words from the main character Hanna, representing the remnant of a childhood past, a fleeting ghost of safety? Or is it the inner voice, the inner words, that only Hanna can hear, since a violent and brutal war in the Balkans left her deaf? Or is this child's voice a vain attempt to make the movie deeper than it really is? I vote for the later.
The acting in the film is adequate; the location, an isolated oil rig, tenuously and temporarily alive in the middle of a threatening sea, is apt. What seems to be amiss is the dialogue in the script. We just dont get the secret life of the words in this film.
I would give this movie an extra half star for wanting to please.
 Compelling Claustrophobic Drama May 25, 2008
prisrob (New EnglandUSA)
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
"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 and originality, sans sentimentality." Jonathan Holland
This film grabbed me and 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 and a non expression that something has gone terribly wrong and will never be right again. Hanna as she is known, is deaf, she lives alone, she works in a factory and has not had a sick day or a day off in 4 years. We know she eats white rice, chicken nuggets and half an apple for every meal. She has a collection of almond scented soap in her bathroom, and she uses a new bar everytime she washes her hands. This is all we know. She is summoned to her supervisor's office and told she must take a 4 week vacation. Her non-speech and work ethic gives her fellow workers a case of nerves, she must at least act human.
Hanna goes to the coast of Northern Ireland and while eating dinner one evening she overhears a conversation that changes her life. An oil rig has had a fire, and there is a great need for a nurse to care for a burned man. She volunteers for the duty and is flown by helicopter to the oil rig.
Hanna meets her patient, Josef, played by Tim Robbins. He has corneal burns and cannot see, leg fractures and burns on his body and face, but he remains intelligent and self-deprecating. He obtained his burns by trying to save someone else. The fact is that what Hanna and Josef don't say is sometime's more significant than what they do say. Hanna maintains her stalwart composure and does not give anything away. Little by little their relationship develops and Hanna begins to open her heart and secrets, as does Josef. On one day, Hanna discloses her shattering past. Josef gathers her in his arms, and this scene is more exqisite than words can express.
The rest of the small crew on the rig are loners as is Hanna. They all have their stories and the chef is the most telling. Hanna discovers that food should be tasted and 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, and Hanna has a family of sorts.
The trauma of both of these characters is lessened by their meeting. Hanna helps Josef heal and Josef helps Hanna with her emotional recovery. Josef has bones that mend and Hanna has a life opened to the world. The time comes when Josef needs more expert care, and 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 and to Paolo Conte. Each song has its place and link the narrative as needed. It is a sound track to be played over and 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, and need love to heal them. This may or may not be true, but it's definitely a truism, and it dissolves at least some of the picture's potency and mystery into cliche." Emily Taylor
We often hear without words, and we understand through facial changes what someone is thinking. This film is the ultimate in communication without words, and 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)
Great movie March 25, 2008
Nicolas Gadano (BUENOS AIRES, Argentina)
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 .... March 23, 2008
Kevin Quinley (Fairfax, VA)
"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.....
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