Writer-director
Isabel Coixet's (
My Life Without Me) beautifully wrought chamber drama
The Secret Life of Words opens on Hanna (
Sarah Polley),
a laconic, backward and introverted girl in her early '30s, quietly
drowning in her own isolation. Partially deaf from working an untold
number of hours in a loud factory, Hanna must wear a hearing aid. When
her supervisors -- deeply concerned about the four years that have
lapsed in Hanna's life without a break -- force her to go on holiday for
a month, she hesitantly takes off for a coastal village in the north of
Ireland.
