dir. Isabel Coixet
I recently discovered Sarah Polley when I saw Away From Her, a movie she wrote and directed. I didn't know much about her, but Away From Her was sad and sweet and wise. My boyfriend told me Polley once said that if she wasn't an actress she would be a labor organizer. Now, after seeing her performance in The Secret Life of Words I can safely say I love her. I'm following her career backwards, apparently she was in Go - which by some twist of fate I survived the '90s without having seen. She appears to be a thinking-woman's Uma Thurman.
I've read that some people compare The Secret Life of Words with Breaking the Waves(BTW), which to me does not compare. The Secret Life of Words is much sweeter and calmer. As I remember, and it's been quite a while seen I've seen it, the characters in BTW have ugly struggles with their anguish, in SLOW, the characters devise ways to peacefully coexist with theirs.
The movie predominantly takes place on a shut-down oil rig, the rig itself serves as a coping mechanism as an isolated and controlled environment that mirrors the factory where Polley's character works. The lovely aerial shots of the oil rig and the sea bring home the isolation in which these people interact. Because there is no outside life to complicate things, the film concentrates on the internal; like quiet conversations that signify slow building relationships between people.
If I were to compare this movie to something, it might be the TV show Northern Exposure. Maybe that is because the director included a couple musical montages featuring the quirky people stranded on the oil rig, including a loveable chef and a geeky oceanographer who plays b-ball with a goose. I love musical montages, and the ones in this movie help to diffuse the seriousness of its characters and underline how a severe, isolated environment can also be healing.
Polley is a joy to watch as a silent, secretive and spare young woman who plays nurse to Tim Robbins, who is distractedly Tim Robbins. Polley aces her apex performance in which she divulges the source of her pain. Above all this movie is a devastating statement against war that will make you cringe at the widespread acceptance of military might. It will remind you that war itself is an enemy of all people; and the consequences of it are unacceptable. And it will remind you how dearly we need more women directors.
