The Secret Life of Words
Good Machine | Release Date: December 15, 2006 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
68
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 11 Critic Reviews
Positive:
9
Mixed:
2
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
88
TV Guide MagazineKen Fox
Carries an important and timely reminder about the fate of torture victims, so deftly wrapped within a touching and beautifully acted melodrama that the result is the furthest thing from a didactic message movie. Read full review
80
The New RepublicStanley Kauffmann
Like 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. Read full review
75
New York PostV.A. Musetto
Yes, 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. Read full review
75
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
Given 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. Read full review
70
VarietyJonathan Holland
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. Read full review
70
Film ThreatJeremy Mathews
A series of conversations that are sometimes clever and sometimes feel like screenwriting exercises about the details of life, but are always well acted. Read full review
70
The New York TimesStephen Holden
The exquisitely coordinated performances elicit an empathy as powerful as anything I can remember feeling in a recent film. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesLael Loewenstein
There may be no young actress today better at embodying a blend of wounded innocence and stoic pride than Sarah Polley. In The Secret Life of Words, she has a part worthy of her gifts. Read full review
67
Entertainment WeeklyGregory Kirshling
Can 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. Read full review
60
SalonAndrew O'Hehir
A 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. Read full review
40
Village VoiceElla Taylor
In due course skeletons will march out of closets, but the movie yields up its secrets with slow reluctance. Read full review
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