IMDb user comments for
The Secret Life of Words (2005)

advertisement

Filter:

Best Chronological Prolific Authors Loved It Hated It Hide Spoilers:

Page 1 of 5:

[1] [2] [3] [4] [5]

Index

41 comments in total

---

57 out of 71 people found the following comment useful :-
Secret's Poetry, 23 octubre 2005

Author: efewebber de www.efeweb.es

I went to see this last Isabel Coixet's movie three hours ago and its beautiful and powerful story is still bouncing in my head... 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. As explicitly mentioned in the movie, 'God makes them..' ('Dios los cria'.., in Spanish), and so as she gets there she expands and relaxes in this environment where no one really expects anything from anybody.

The takes are so beautiful, the thousand different feelings that the same isolated landscape in the middle of the sea projects through the movie is unbeatable. The cast of characters is solid, and the supporting characters are developed enough so as to allow the viewer to understand, in basic terms, what brought them there.

Finally, the use of Tom Waits for the final transition is sublime! but, yeah, how could it not be? Tom Waits's music is the music for these films where the very deep of the heart is at stake.

So, yes, I do recommend this movie for anyone who cares or wants to care or would like to be able to care about people who have been profoundly wounded at some point. And this, I am afraid, hopefully includes you. Thanks Isabel.

---

46 out of 58 people found the following comment useful :-
Touching and smart, 2 noviembre 2005

Author: abeldiaz de Barcelona

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). I also enjoyed the rest of the characters: it is amazing how they are described with small details here and there, and you finish the movie wanting to know more about the rest of the cast. Isabel Coixet did a splendid work here of portrayal of the more inner parts of the human soul. Please check the music of the film, the selection is really good and all the songs fit brilliantly in the plot of the film.

---

37 out of 41 people found the following comment useful :-
Good and Underrated, 11 junio 2006

Author: slake09 de Silver Lake, Ohio, USA

Great performances, an original idea, good script - it's just a great movie, which nobody I know has seen.

I have no idea why this one didn't get better distribution, it certainly deserves it. The little quirks of the characters liven up the story, as does the interaction between Polley's disturbed nurse and Robbin's rough patient. Although you could see the ending coming a mile away, that was fine, as it seemed that was what was supposed to happen.

This is a good one when you're in the mood for a somewhat dark drama with romantic overtones. The romance doesn't get too much in the way of the drama, the drama doesn't go overboard into melodrama.

---

26 out of 31 people found the following comment useful :-
This film just screened as part of Brisbane International Film festival (Australia). I was truly devastated., 11 agosto 2006

Author: stefan-t de Australia

I understand the commentary about the revelation of pain but the most significant 'lesson' for me was the insidious horror of war - in a film without bloodshed - and obviously the lingering effects of man's inhumanity to man. The slow reveal of the characters' backgrounds crept up on me and to my surprise left me absolutely gutted at the film's conclusion -and for some time after. I was left with a feeling of emotional and physical grief that i have not felt since my father died - the uncontrollable tide of internal pain. While a completely different genre, it reminded me of Sophie's Choice but in comparison made Streep's horror look like a walk in the park. Polley is amazing. What human's do to each other is tragic beyond description. And yet, we continue to torture our fellow humans and apparently fail to learn from our mistakes.

---

37 out of 53 people found the following comment useful :-
Outstanding! Isabel has done it again!, 23 octubre 2005

Author: nicoloved de Barcelona, Spain

What a remarkable film! "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. We needed this movie!

This movie could have been called "The Forgotten". Why we prejudice people we don't know simply because they behave differently, in ways we do not understand? How come we pretend to understand certain things that we cannot even imagine to be happening in the world?

The story of Hannah is the story of the millions that have been forgotten, but that walk with us every day.

Subtle and brilliant. Fine and devastating.

My admiration to Isabel for her bravery and talent. A terrific next film after "My Life Without Me".

The cast is wonderful! Sarah Polley and Tim Robbins are absolutely fantastic. What a performance! Julie Christie is great too (she sure got the great lines!). Thank you, thank you all.

Entertaining in a meaningful way.

Absolutely recommendable!

All the best to your film Isabel!!

Nico

---

32 out of 45 people found the following comment useful :-
A great movie on survival and healing, 28 noviembre 2005

Author: Campusgirl de Europe

When people go through great amounts of pain and unbearable suffering, it takes a lot of time for them to be able (if ever) to heal and go on with their lives. This movie helps us to understand that process and connect with other people's pain. It does it in a very slow way, it's true, but that's the greatness and beauty of this movie. It gives us time to understand what these people have been thru, and shows how important it is that we do not forget, or let those that have suffered to be forgotten. It's not 'showy', not fast, not overly intellectualized but small, understanding and truthful. It gives us people difficult to watch because they are block, closed and reserved but at the same time gives us time to understand why, and that in the end it is possible to survive, to heal from the most terrible things that can happen to a human being. This movie is not for people who are not sensitive enough to think about what happened 'around the corner' some years ago and what extent can the human cruelness reach. The movie could have been pathetic and sentimental but it's not (it does have its faults but the outcome is so important that you forgive that). It shows that there is a place in a world for those that have suffered, and for those that are hurt, lonely, shy, and for those to whom the mere existence is difficult. And already for that I am grateful for this movie, that shows that there is so much more in life than words, and that we all carry a rich universe in us to be explored if we love and are loved no matter who we are and what life has put us through.

---

29 out of 41 people found the following comment useful :-
What a wonderful movie, 4 noviembre 2005
Author: katkat00 de Austria

I have seen the movie and I have to say its just beautiful, no its not the slow, easy going romantic love story....it is difficult, critical and poetic. there is no action, its just about those 2 people, who are lonely, and experienced things in their lives nobody could imagine. 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.

---

20 out of 24 people found the following comment useful :-
Not the most social film in the world, 14 mayo 2006

Author: KuRt-33 (kurtaerden@yahoo.com) de Antwerp, Belgium

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. An explosion has occurred, killing one guy and badly injuring a man who tried to help. The problem is: where can you find a nurse that wants to work on an oil rig? Enter Hanna Amiran, a deaf girl who has worked in a factory for four years without taking a day off. Now Hanna has been forced by the unions to take some time off. Hanna, seemingly unaware of what a vacation is, books herself a stay in a shabby hotel and is eating Chinese food when she overhears a man who's working for the oil company: "Where can we find a nurse that wants to work on an oil rig?" Hanna goes up to him and says: "I'm a nurse."

Hanna is not the most social person in the world. That she's deaf is helpful: if she doesn't want to communicate she turns off her hearing aid. Which makes her an ideal person to work on an oil rig: the captain, the cook, the biologist... all of them are pretty introvert. The thing is: when a new person is brought to the oil rig, they do want to have some social contact. But not Hanna. She's even less revealing to Josef, the man she has to nurse. Josef is badly burnt and because of the fire has lost the ability to see for a couple of weeks. Not being able to see anything, he wants to talk the whole time. Which seems to upset Hanna. She tells him his name is Cora, she lies about the colour of her hair...

Throughout the movie you'll see the secretive layers of Josef and Hanna peel off. 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. In his own time he also studies mussels (which are affected by the pollution) and hopes that one day when the oil has been pumped out of the sea the rigs will be used to make the water cleaner. That is the bit that makes me feel some will dismiss this movie as pretentious nonsense. Hanna's history, which I won't reveal, is also a heavy subject. 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. The childish voice-over you hear at the beginning and the end of the movie has raised a couple of questions on internet fora as to which character it is. Some of the comments on those fora made me want to see the movie again. Which, whatever way you put it, is always a good sign.

It's hard to describe this movie as we're not dealing with 'actions', but rather the 'aftermath of actions'. Which is why the movie is both silent and talkative. Which is why we're voyeurs trying to peel off the layers too. The best (and possibly the only) way to describe this movie is by using one word: intense.

---

26 out of 40 people found the following comment useful :-
Remarkable independent film, 5 noviembre 2005

Author: Paul Scofield (paulscofield68@hotmail.com) de Paris

Those of you who have seen Isabel Coixet's first film- My Life without Me- shouldn't miss this one. Like that film, this has a tragic-romantic essence at its core. A very well-written script, with a handful of themes, superbly acted, and direction/editing/score/soundtrack all good to very good (at times excellent). Dense, literate, and increasingly absorbing. By no means your mainstream action flick; yet this movie should find a large audience in those who like 'independent films' (or 'European', for Americans). Filmed in Ireland (much shot indoors), and entirely in English. A very satisfying drama- I found it even better than 'l'Enfant', which took top prize at this past Cannes Film Festival. Both are highly recommended...enjoy.

---

7 out of 8 people found the following comment useful :-
Educates the Viewer, Makes You Feel...Thank God At Least Almodovar Remembers What A Movie is Supposed to Do., 13 enero 2007

Author: cineaste de Paris, France

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

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. In medical terms, he doesn't appear like a critical burn patient. But it helps the story.

I avoided this movie in the theaters because it is so deeply provocative and I knew it would require a lot of energy to watch. Now that I've seen it, I am honored to have had the experience. It made me feel, and made me remember a war that we have essentially forgotten.

I saw a bunch of posts here talking about the lack of romance. It is not a romance. Romance is for movies that cast Jennifer Anniston in the leading lady role. This is a love story, one that breaks your heart but also mends it. The main character tends to fall for attached women, and in the end he learns the real definition of attachment. When you face an adversary that can't be touched or even seen. Some might say that is the true definition of fear. The girl he falls for gives up her comfort of silence to love him in return.

What is more of a love story than that? If you haven't seen this movie, run out now. Put it in your Netflix queue. Harass your local video store if they don't carry it. Then sit down and watch it - by yourself.

Then decide if you're like Martin, a person in the world to be envied because they see the faults of the world. The huge chasms where the important things fall and try to catch them even though their hands are so small.

---

---

Page 1 of 5:

[1] [2] [3] [4] [5]

Add another comment

---

Related Links

Plot summary	Plot synopsis	Ratings
Awards	External reviews	Parents Guide
Official site	Plot keywords	Detalles principales
Your user comments	Your vote history