Susan Granger’s review of “The Secret Life of Words” (Strand Releasing)
Post-traumatic stress syndrome affects two troubled people who, miraculously, connect on a dreary, windswept oil rig in this drama set on the Irish Sea.
Living in self-imposed isolation, Hanna (Sarah Polley), a hearing-impaired survivor of the brutal civil wars in the Balkans, dutifully trudges to her job every day in a British factory but cannot connect with her co-workers. So her boss tells her to take a month’s vacation.
While eating a solitary dinner in a coastal town in Northern Ireland, Hanna overhears a conversation about the need for a nurse on an oil rig, so she volunteers to take care of a severely burned, temporarily blind man, Josef (Tim Robbins), until he can be moved to a mainland hospital. Gradually, almost imperceptibly, a relationship between them develops and their tragic stories unfold, revealing the mysterious, intimate secrets that they have kept hidden for years – thanks to the brief intervention of Hanna’s psychologist Inge (Julie Christie).
Spanish writer/director Isabel Coixet delves into the existential subtext of emotional communication – and empathy. Having worked with Coixet previously in “My Life Without Me,” Canadian actress Sarah Polley is acutely attuned to every nuance of the sketchy, awkwardly-written script, and Tim Robbins has never been more affecting. Other potentially intriguing characters – an oceanographer (Daniel Mays) and an idealistic gourmet cook (Javier Camara) – are introduced and then abruptly, inexplicably abandoned.
While the acting is excellent, the production values, particularly acoustically, leave much to be desired, although the muted musical score – with songs by Tom Waits, Clem Snyde, David Bryne, etc. – often mitigates the problem. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “The Secret Life of Words” is a meditative, slow-paced 6, reminiscent of Lars von Trier’s “Breaking the Waves” (1999).
