The Secret Life Of Words ( La Vida secreta de las palabras ) [DVD]

I saw The Secret Life of Words on Saturday 23rd September 2006 as part of the Copenhagen International Film Festival.

This is a truly amazing film. It is a film that covers many topics and emotions, not least the power of empathy: that mysterious ability we humans have to feel another person's pain as if it were our own. This deeply moving drama tells the story of one woman's struggle to cope with her past. It is about the power of words and about how words can become lost in a limbo of silence.

Hospital nurse, Hanna (Sarah Polley), moves out onto a oil rig to look after Josef (Tim Robbins), who, after a traumatic accident, is confined to bed with serious burns and transitory blindness. As the relationship between nurse and patient gradually evolves, the secret layers of Hanna's past are exposed and a heartbreaking truth is revealed.

Sarah Polley gives herself completely as Hanna. It is an absolutely stunning acting performance. From the very first frame, although we barely know where this woman is from, we do know who she is. Likewise, Tim Robbins is magnificent as Josef, a man not only suffering from temporary blindness, but also a man who is waging war with the demons within himself. Julie Christie's recreation of Inge Genefke, the founder of the International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims, is sublime. She captures Inge Genefke's determined resolve, coupled with her love of humanity.

This is a film about a weighty and serious subject. However, Isabel Coixet has managed to tell it with great subtlety, finesse, warmth and even humour. The Secret Life of Words is rich with intriguing images and sounds from beginning to end. The film is a true confirmation of the transformational power of art.

So please, please, go see this film, or buy the DVD, and make sure that you tell your friends about it and that you do everything you can to promote it in the schools and colleges of the country that you live in.

Isabel Coixet was inspired to make this film after visiting the International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims (IRCT) in Copenhagen, an independent, international health professional organisation that promotes and supports the rehabilitation of torture survivors and works for the prevention of torture worldwide. This film is dedicated to founder of the IRCT, Dr Inge Genefke. Inge Genefke has spent the last 30 years tirelessly fighting for the rights of traumatised torture victims. Saturday's screening of the film at the Copenhagen Film festival was preceded by an introduction by Inge Genefke and Britta Sydhoff from the IRCT. Inge Genefke spoke of her meetings with the film's director Isabel Coixet and with actress Sarah Polley and thanked everyone involved in the making of the film.

"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. This film tackles its big theme -- silence as a defense against tragedy -- with delicacy, sympathy and originality, sans sentimentality." Jonathan Holland

This film grabbed me and cut to my core. Immediately this young woman played by Sarah Polley spoke to me. This is an actress who can display with a flick of her hair and a non expression that something has gone terribly wrong and will never be right again. Hanna as she is known, is deaf, she lives alone, she works in a factory and has not had a sick day or a day off in 4 years. We know she eats white rice, chicken nuggets and half an apple for every meal. She has a collection of almond scented soap in her bathroom, and she uses a new bar everytime she washes her hands. This is all we know. She is summoned to her supervisor's office and told she must take a 4 week vacation. Her non-speech and work ethic gives her fellow workers a case of nerves, she must at least act human.

Hanna goes to the coast of Northern Ireland and while eating dinner one evening she overhears a conversation that changes her life. An oil rig has had a fire, and there is a great need for a nurse to care for a burned man. She volunteers for the duty and is flown by helicopter to the oil rig.

Hanna meets her patient, Josef, played by Tim Robbins. He has corneal burns and cannot see, leg fractures and burns on his body and face, but he remains intelligent and self-deprecating. He obtained his burns by trying to save someone else. The fact is that what Hanna and Josef don't say is sometime's more significant than what they do say. Hanna maintains her stalwart composure and does not give anything away. Little by little their relationship develops and Hanna begins to open her heart and secrets, as does Josef. On one day, Hanna discloses her shattering past. Josef gathers her in his arms, and this scene is more exqisite than words can express.

The rest of the small crew on the rig are loners as is Hanna. They all have their stories and the chef is the most telling. Hanna discovers that food should be tasted and enjoyed. A scene with Hanna, sitting on the stairs, devouring the rest of Josef's meal will live on. There is a sharing of respect, and Hanna has a family of sorts.

The trauma of both of these characters is lessened by their meeting. Hanna helps Josef heal and Josef helps Hanna with her emotional recovery. Josef has bones that mend and Hanna has a life opened to the world. The time comes when Josef needs more expert care, and they are both helicoptered off the rig to the city. "Hanna, Hanna,' we hear Josef yell as he is lifted into the ambulance. "Hanna,Hanna".

The soundtrack to the film is exquisite. From Clem Snide to David Byrne to Tom Waits and to Paolo Conte. Each song has its place and link the narrative as needed. It is a sound track to be played over and over again.

"Instead of being a visionary film that shows us how people behave when they have been tremendously damaged, this becomes an explanatory film that tells us that its characters have been damaged, and need love to heal them. This may or may not be true, but it's definitely a truism, and it dissolves at least some of the picture's potency and mystery into cliché." Emily Taylor

We often hear without words, and we understand through facial changes what someone is thinking. This film is the ultimate in communication without words, and when words are spoken, each of them evokes a distinct memory.

Highly Recommended. prisrob 05-24-08

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This is a thought provoking film, which if often heartbreaking to watch. Sarah Polley and Tim Robbins give stellar performances and it is sensitively directed by Isablel Coixet.