The Secret Life of Words

Plot synopsis:
Taciturn, partially deaf Hanna (Polley) is a Yugoslavian native working in a factory in Northern Ireland. She is forced to take a vacation by her boss, who tells her that her co-workers have been offended by her lack of socializing. After overhearing a conversation about a need for a nurse, she takes on a job as private nurse for burn victim Josef (Robbins). He is bedridden on an offshore oil rig after a fire on the rig, and has severe burns and is temporarily blinded. The rig is not operational awaiting an investigation, and few people remain on board.
Hanna talks very little, and especially does not want to talk about herself. Despite his pain, Josef is constantly making jokes, some of them humorous sexual advances. Hanna's care for him includes holding the urinal and washing his entire body. As they get closer, they start sharing their experiences. Unbeknownst to him, she listens over and over again to a message on his cell phone from a mysterious woman who was in love with him.
Hanna learns from a colleague that Josef was injured while trying to save a man who committed suicide by intentionally throwing himself into the oil-rig fire. Some other tragic connection between the two men is implied. He tells about a near-drowning experience because he cannot swim. Eventually Josef confides to Hanna his greatest secret guilt, and she tells him about her previous life in the former Yugoslavia. She describes in detail the horrors she endured during the Balkan Wars (Yugoslav Wars), including being kidnapped and repeatedly raped. She shares experiences of the other women, including one that was forced to shoot her own daughter, and the slow and agonizing death of her best friend. She tells of her own repeated torture and lets him feel the scars on her body from the wounds inflicted on her.
Josef is not getting better, and at Hanna's initiative he is air-lifted off the oil rig to be taken to a hospital. When the helicopter lands, Josef wants Hanna to accompany him, but she walks away without a word. However, she leaves behind a backpack (apparently intentionally), and it contains enough information to give Josef a chance to find her. After he recovers, Josef travels to Denmark to visit a counselor that Hanna had seen after fleeing the war, seeking to learn more about her. He then tracks her down at the factory in Northern Ireland where she works. They talk, and at first she keeps her distance, saying she couldn't be with him because she thinks one day she could drown them both in her sorrow. When he tells her that he will "learn to swim," she reciprocates the love. Later, Hanna is shown in a home with the voice of a young girl explaining that Hanna now has two sons, whom the narrator refers to as her brothers, indicating that the woman Hanna described as having been forced to kill her own child was, in fact, herself. The voice of her daughter ends the film with the hope that Hanna will one day be able to live completely in the "now" and no longer be haunted by the past.

Tags: romantic, depressing, murder, storytelling, sentimental

Review:
The little quirks of the characters liven up the story, as does the interaction between Polley's disturbed nurse and Robbin's rough patient.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Two persons trying to cope with the past: a splendid Sarah Polley and (as always) a great Tim Robbins.
This is a smart and very interesting film about the way we try to escape from the past: with love and with words (and with silences).
Such is the case with THE SECRET LIFE OF WORDS, and having seen the film now raises the question of how it went unnoticed in the theater release.
It is a minimalist statement about the indomitable human spirit, a story that slowly unwinds to reveal some of the most terrifying aspects of trauma of war and guilt and shame ever written.Hanna (Sarah Polley, in a phenomenal performance) is a deaf, silent reclusive young woman working as a line operator in a factory, so married to her meaningless job that her boss insists she take a vacation she deserves.
Hanna does as she's told, and journeys to a seaside spot where she hears about a man on an oil rig in the middle of the ocean who is severely burned and needs a nurse.
Hanna quietly takes the job, is flown by the doctor (Steven Mackintosh) to the isolated oil rig, populated with only a few men - cook Simon (Javier Cámara of 'Hable con ella', 'La Mala educación, 'Lucía y el sexo' etc), oceanographer and workers (Eddie Marsan, Daniel Mays, Dean Lennox Kelly, Danny Cunningham, Emmanuel Idowu) and a captain (Steven Mackintosh), and meets her patient Josef (Tim Robbins) who is temporarily blinded from burns to his corneas, and severely burned on his limbs.Josef seeks to discover information from Hanna, but Hanna shares nothing about herself, spending her time dressing Josef's wounds, feeding him and tending to his needs.
After some time has passed and Josef has recovered, he begins his search for Hanna and the journey and its finale serve as a touching end to the story.The cast is uniformly brilliant, including a small role of Hanna's therapist played convincingly by Julie Christie.
Hanna is a lonely woman, with the paranoid behavior of eating white rice, chicken nuggets and apple everyday and never repeating the soap, and she slowly interacts with the few workers first, opening her heart to Joseph later and disclosing her traumatic experience in her old country."The Secret Life of Words" is a touching and heartbreaking romance, with an awesome screenplay and wonderful performances of Sarah Polley and Tim Robbins.
"The Secret Life of Words" grows on you little by little, at a steady and constant relaxed pace, throwing at you intriguing images and sounds from the very beginning that will get you hooked wondering until the very end.Isabel has done it again, an emotional "rollercoaster" that gets to you in a devastating way.
this movie makes you think, think about your life, about your love about the world.i can recommend it to everybody, who likes little quiet movies, which touch you go watch it, the 2 main actors are brilliant.
sarah polley plays here role, with a heartbreaking truth, tim robbins (susan sarandons husband) does a great job as well..
Story of Hanna and Josef - another thoughtful delivery from Spanish filmmaker Isabel Coixet, poignant script of wounded hearts, a deep dark subject tough to retain solo.
Second time around collaboration with writer-director Isabel Coixet (previously in "My Life Without Me" 2003), Sarah Polley again gave us a stunning subdued performance portraying 'Hanna' (wears a hearing aid) with possible tough turmoil lodged within, seems rather be alone by herself.
Nothing is rushed - we are given time to ponder with Hanna and Josef, appreciating the growing relationship, closing the gap, trusting each other.The story setting includes life on an oil rig (off the coast of Northern Ireland at the time.) We get a sense of how each member of the team past their time after the alleged accident rendering the rig operation to shut down.
Sverre Anker Ousdal (I remember him from "Kitchen Stories" 2003) is the Norwegian ship's in-charge Dimitri who imparted his wisdom to Hanna: "Deep down, everything is an accident." Yes, the words (and the silence in between) to the dialog and scenes are well-thought out.
And when you reached the end of the film, you may want to go back to the beginning credit roll and try to catch the 'secret words' that transiently appears with the display of each name and title.
Some of the words are: silence, friend, sound, cut, pain, affection, scream, hope, child, ever, love, minutes, time, rain, believe, hope - ends with Coixet's name: always - hope.
I rated THE SECRET LIFE OF WORDS at 9 out of 10: excellent script, thoughtful drama, superb acting, cinematography, production, editing both sound and visuals, music & songs and silence & dialog considerations, cultural diversity and the tough subject at heart, raising awareness and hope for the future.
Isabel Coixet, the most exciting name to come from Spain since Pedro Almodóvar (who produced this film, by the way), made another remarkable film after her unforgettable "My Life Without Me" (2003), also starring Sarah Polley."The Secret Life of Words" is the contemplative, poignant story of a young hearing impaired woman (Polley), who takes care of a man (Tim Robbins) who suffered severe burns in an accident on an oil rig.
This is an attractive movie by Isabel Coixet ; full of nice feeling , drama and stirring scenes , though slow-moving.
Hannah (Sarah Polley , Coixet wrote the role for her) is a factory worker who wears a hearing aid , she is forced to go on holiday , her first one in years .
She doesn't want it and instead , Hannah arranges to find a job : caring for Josef (Tim Robbins who used contact lenses that damaged his eyes) , an injured oil rig worker who temporarily lost his sight .
Interesting script by Isabel Coixet who wrote the role of Hannah with 'Sarah Polley' in mind , she knows very well inter-cross these two troublesome roles , a woman who have not been able to vanquish his dark past and suffering a fateful existence as well as a severely wounded rig worker .
As the excellent Sarah Polley as a hearing impaired who gives up her holiday and travels out to an oil rig , where she cares for a man and magnificent Tim Robbins as a burn victim on an accident .
Coixet is an acclaimed Spanish filmmaker who has previously found international success with Elegy and The Secret Life of Words and she's the camera operator of her movies .
From Hannah, who didn't speak and trust people becoming completely open and sharing her story (certain clues like her eating different food played a role in sensing this development), to Josef who's love life was tainted until he found his true counterpart.
The use of the little girl's voice to narrate gives it a dark, yet emotional sense of who she is and where the story of the movie is coming from.
As Jane Campion, Susanne Bier, Lynne Ramsay and Sally Potter, Spanish screenwriter and director Isabel Coixet who made quite an impression with "My Life Without Me" (2003) has a subtle, lyrical and ravishingly beautiful way of depicting human relations and emotions, which shines through in this heartfelt and universally appealing story about Hanna, a lonely factory worker in Northern Ireland who after being instructed to take a holiday by her boss returns to her lonely life at the coast where she realizes that a holiday is the last thing she wants and ends up taking a job as a nurse at an oil rig.Spanish filmmaker Isabel Coixet's fifth feature film is mostly set on a distant oil rig and centres on the main character's evolving relationship with her patient named Josef and her meeting with seven men who share her need for solitude and privacy.
The role of Hanna is portrayed by Sarah Polley, a Canadian actress with a great gift for interpreting internal and low-keyed characters with great conviction, "The Sweet Hereafter" (1997) being one of them, and here she practically conveys the soul of the film through her intuitive and quiet though expressive performance, which transcends in the scene where she confides to her patient, gracefully acted by American actor and director Tim Robbins."The Secret Life of Words" is a well-paced study of character with fragments of poetry that has lively visuals, atmospheric music and many colorful characters, and which is observantly written and gently filmed by Isabel Coixet.
That set up works because the performances allow it.The film is about being incomplete, abnormal people running away from normal situations - almost a reverse of the most common kind of drama this days, normal people in abnormal situations.There are great hints at understanding visually what the two main characters feel physically/deeply.
A solitary woman (Sarah Polley) is brought to the rig to look after a man (Tim Robbins) who has been temporarily blinded.
And after that just praise that little part.Neither "love story" nor "against war", not even a part of life lost in the wild capitalism.As about actors' performance, decor, costumes, expenses, I won't comment at all.The only slice of cheese you can express is " life and silence".Like Voltaire said: "we get to look into our garden!" Just watch!....
Gently compassionate work describes the unusual relationship between a hearing impaired, anti-social nurse and the burn victim she takes care of on a desolate oil rig.
To call the script underdeveloped would be a little unfair; there are plenty of details thrown in to keep a mild level of interest, but not until the final act does the film really offer anything of substance.Until then we still have the strangely involving lead performance of Sarah Polley, painfully alluring in a way few stateside actresses can manage, commanding attention in a difficult role.
There are amazing performances by Tim Robbins and Sarah Polley(what unforgettable characters!) with a ring of true life in the dialog and situations.This movie build up slowly but when the end arrives you are deeply affected by the story of these two human beings .Coixet , who writes and is director of the movie, is an amazing screenwriter who offers very good observations about human nature .I was surprised by this movie , cause at first I was not very enthusiastic about this film but at the end I find myself deeply moved .I think that "Mystic River" and this film are 2 of the greatest performances by Robbins .
in fact I've never liked Tim robins and i haven't seen many of his films but his performance completely swept me off my feet and made me dream of him as the perfect man, a man who feels and understands the pain of others and quietly delves in and take it away, the actress playing Hannah is always great in dramatic roles but her she was beautiful in every scene and when she smiled in spite of her suffering she melted my heart and the ending was more than satisfying.
the brilliant director immediately attracts you in.there are unanswered questions left so that you can make up the answers and participate in the film yourself.the synopsis is interesting and displays the lives or jobs of people far away from our sights and make the audience try to make empathy.it is like knowing that farmers exist somewhere but never ever thinking of what would it be like...to be a farmer...Moreover the film touches pathetic social issues in a very affective way without exaggerating and agitating.The only problem was dubbing...In short it is a film to see...a complete success.
We follow the secretive, insular Hanna (Sarah Polley) as she is forced to take a holiday  only to get work on an oil rig.
Only when the things given life again by their words have died, can they rise above the waves that have engulfed them.Hanna says: ¨I may begin to cry and cry so very much that nothing or nobody can stop me and the tears will fill the room and I won't be able to breath and I will pull you down with me and we'll both drown.¨ To which Josef replies, ¨I'll learn how to swim, Hanna.
¨There are very few things - ,¨ (a voice-over says at the start of the film), ¨ - silence and words.¨Indeed, there is very little else in the movie.
She takes the job on the North Sea oil rig caring for worker Josef (Tim Robbins) who was blinded by the fire that shut down the rig.It seems unrealistic that Josef doesn't get airlifted to a hospital right away.
Sarah Polley and Tim Robbins are making a great job, as the rest of the crew on this oil platform out in the North Sea.The film is slow, like the life out on a platform with only 7-8 men will be.
It's the interesting part because many viewers had different views how to put the words Tim and Sarah's characters are telling.
Forced to take holiday after years without taking a break, Hanna (played by Sara Polley) gives up her vacation to take care of a man severely burned on an oil rig.
The supporting cast does not disappoint either and gives applaud-able performances all around.This is probably one of the most endearing and enthralling films where not much happens, however, because of the slow manner in which each character is revealed and miraculously developed I found myself demanding to know more during every second of each scene.
'The Secret Life Of Words' is a must see by those that favor strong character development and don't mind a slow moving film as long as its rewarding in the end..
The story, though strange, is quite good, but the movie has one main problem: during about 90min, nothing happens; only waves, sights breaths and few words.
I love Tim Robbins performance, and Sarah Polley is a great actress, no doubt.I can't find the 4 deleted scenes and the making of.
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.
"The Secret Life of Words" is a good movie.
He is nursed by a character played by Sarah Polley, who has a tortured past.She knows how to work with the purpose of a film, and when that purpose it to turn things over to the actors, she really turns it on.
And, as Josef, Tim Robbins has material that draws out his best.Most of us have not spent time on an off-shore oil rig, so getting some insight into what life is like in such an environment is interesting.
Does a movie like "The Secret Life of Words" make us more conscious of genocidal wars and contribute to their prevention?
Not for the faint of heart, but a really beautiful movie with wonderful performances by Tim Robbins and especially Sarah Polley.
Not to mention Tim Robbins; this international collaboration is wonderful.Oh, and if you see the movie and can't understand what Ms. Polley's character is saying in a spot or two early on, don't worry.
I can take care of him." In opening credits we see glimpses in slow motion of a fire and Tim Robbins as oil platform worker Josef is injured while trying in vain to save another.
But SLOW( yes, secret life of words is very slow) is just a pretentious independent film like many others, is the result of Coixet's looking herself too much time into the mirror.
In this offbeat, slow-to-unfold picture (the first hour is hard to get through by any standard), Hanna, a war-traumatized Bosnian nurse (Sarah Polley) connects with Josef, a burn victim (Tim Robbins) whom she cares for on an oil-rig.
At the last second she tries to avoid leisure time and the possibility of introspection and resurfacing emotion by volunteering to nurse for badly burned oil rig worker, Josef (Tim Robbins).
Isabel Coixet's "The Secret Life of Words" stars Sarah Polley as a withdrawn, scarred, hearing impaired factory worker who volunteers to work on an oil rig.
There she takes care of a character played by Tim Robbins, who is suffering from severe burns and temporary blindness.The film overindulges in monologues, and is too reminiscent of Oscar-baiting fare like "Sophie's Choice" and "The English Patient", but Polley turns in another excellent performance.
She seems to specialise in giving good performances in films which should be better.The idea of a lonely girl on an oil-rig in the middle of the ocean is very good, and lends itself to all kinds of interesting possibilities, but Coixet can't milk these possibilities.