68
Metascore
11 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 80The New RepublicStanley KauffmannThe New RepublicStanley KauffmannLike 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.
- 75New York PostV.A. MusettoNew York PostV.A. MusettoYes, 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.
- 75New York Daily NewsJack MathewsNew York Daily NewsJack MathewsGiven 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.
- 70VarietyJonathan HollandVarietyJonathan HollandSarah 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.
- 70Film ThreatFilm ThreatA series of conversations that are sometimes clever and sometimes feel like screenwriting exercises about the details of life, but are always well acted.
- 70The New York TimesStephen HoldenThe New York TimesStephen HoldenThe exquisitely coordinated performances elicit an empathy as powerful as anything I can remember feeling in a recent film.
- 67Entertainment WeeklyEntertainment WeeklyCan 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.
- 60SalonAndrew O'HehirSalonAndrew O'HehirA 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.
- 40Village VoiceVillage VoiceIn due course skeletons will march out of closets, but the movie yields up its secrets with slow reluctance.