The Secret Life of Words

I thought that the English language trailer was so poor that I was going to dispense with the whole thing of placing it in a post. I started to think, though, how hard it would be to make a trailer for this film and I became a little more forgiving. Then I found the French trailer! Enjoy (especially the Tom Waits bit of the soundtrack.)

In the interest of full disclosure, I believe that I was in the proper mood and frame of mind to see this "beautifully wrought chamber-drama" (as the NYT termed it) and let it tow me out to the middle of the North Sea to the tiny rooms of an off-shore drilling rig forever under its soggy gray sky. I think it's one of the best films I've seen in a long time.

As the story spiraled into the lives of Hanna (Sarah Polley) and Josef (Tim Robbins) I settled in for the hypnotic trip into the characters, every spin stripping away a little more of what they've carefully built to show the world and hide behind.

Catalán director Isabel Coixet pulls Hanna from her UK factory job in the same roundabout way...only to sandwich her between endless sea and clouds on the all but abandoned platform to nurse Robbins' injuries from an explosion.

After enough layers are peeled away there is suddenly nothing left to hold back the either character's core and the tick-tock of their lives changes as does the pacing of the film.

The nordic setting of the film along with its pace and its interiors centered in the bleak nothingness left more than a few viewers with a Scandinavian feel. Afterwards, everyone seemed to be lingering in the lobby for the opportunity to say something about the experience with strangers. I haven't seen that since I don't remember when.

Here's the cartalera from La Nación.