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The Secret Life of Words
Metascore
68 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 11 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 9 out of 11
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 11
  3. Negative: 0 out of 11
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  1. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Ken Fox
    88
    Carries an important and timely reminder about the fate of torture victims, so deftly wrapped within a touching and beautifully acted melodrama that the result is the furthest thing from a didactic message movie.
  2. The New Republic
    Reviewed by: Stanley Kauffmann
    80
    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.
  3. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Jack Mathews
    75
    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.
  4. New York Post
    Reviewed by: V.A. Musetto
    75
    Yes, The Secret Life of Words owes much to Lars von Trier's 1999 "Breaking the Waves." But Coixet's riff stands on its own thanks to thoughtful performances by Polley and Robbins.
  5. Film Threat
    Reviewed by: Jeremy Mathews
    70
    A series of conversations that are sometimes clever and sometimes feel like screenwriting exercises about the details of life, but are always well acted.
  6. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Lael Loewenstein
    70
    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.
  7. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Stephen Holden
    70
    The exquisitely coordinated performances elicit an empathy as powerful as anything I can remember feeling in a recent film.
  8. Variety
    Reviewed by: Jonathan Holland
    70
    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.
  9. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Gregory Kirshling
    67
    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.
  10. Salon.com
    Reviewed by: Andrew O'Hehir
    60
    A tantalizing and beautiful picture made with tremendous integrity, and anchored by two marvelous performances, Isabel Coixet's The Secret Life of Words still, somehow, doesn't quite work.
  11. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: Ella Taylor
    40
    In due course skeletons will march out of closets, but the movie yields up its secrets with slow reluctance.
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User Reviews

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User Score
7.8 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 18 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 4 out of 5
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 5
  3. Negative: 0 out of 5
  1. Sindri
    8
    Whispering words of substantial meaning - As Jane Campion, Susanne Bier, Lynne Ramsay and Sally Potter, Spanish director Isabel Coixet who caught my attention 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. Isabel Coixets fifth feature film is mostly set on a distant oil rig focusing on Hanna's evolving relationship with her patient Josef and her meeting with seven men who share her need for solitude and privacy. The role of Hanna is portrayed by Sarah Polley, an actress with a great gift for interpreting internal and low-keyed characters with great conviction, "The Sweet Herafter" (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 played by Tim Robbins. "The Secret Life of Words" is well-paced character study with fragments of poetry that has lively visuals, mood-setting music, many colorful characters and is observantly written and gently filmed by Isabel Coixet. It is a memorable movie experience which through it's depiction of people who turn to their loneliness in order to regain their security succeeds to affirm new perspectives on life.… Full Review »
  2. Lyn
    9
    Quietly powerful. As people on the periphery provide some interesting quirks and questions, the stories of the two main characters unfold slowly. Details that you learn about them & guess about them pull you into their stories and make you hope fervently that each finds a way to recover and rebuild. I found it an interesting exploration of the ways that wounded people tend to be drawn to each other.… Full Review »
  3. ChadS.
    7
    After we hear Hanna(Sarah Polley) tell Josef(Tim Robbins) her story of survival during the Balkan War, some of us may question why she'd volunteer her nursing services on an oil rig, a place that will be populated predominantly by men? Isn't she supposed to be traumatized by the male species? Hannah's occupation as some nondescript factory worker seems like a custom fit for her life's agenda of complete anonymity, because it's egalitarian and the monotonous nature of this sort of job neutralizes a person's strengths and weaknesses. The uniform aids her invisibility because it desexualizes herself, as well as the other women and men. But then Hanna is forced to go on vacation by management. Exactly why she wants to be an individual again(a nurse, a person who stands alone) is never made clear. We know Hannah is alone, but that's her choice. There's also a certain oddness in Hannah's decision to confess her traumatic past to Josef, her patient, who helped inspire a friend to self-immolate due to his sexual indiscretion. In spite of her painful experiences with men, she's attracted to a bad boy. Why not fall in love with the nice marine biologist who wants to save all the sea creatures? He's kind of blind, too(like Josef due to the fire). He's more interested in the sea than this beautiful girl. Still, Sarah Polley and Tim Robbins have chemistry, which is important to help stave off the claustrophobia of a largely one-setting movie.… Full Review »
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