by MALCOLM FRASER

Director Isabel Coixet reunites with her My Life Without Me star, Canadian indie icon Sarah Polley, for this unusual existential drama set aboard an oil rig. In The Secret Life of Words, Polley plays Hanna, an Eastern European factory worker who, while on vacation, spontaneously decides to take a job as a nurse for Josef (Tim Robbins), a rig worker who’s been injured and temporarily blinded in an accident.

Almost the entire film consists of dialogue between Polley and Robbins as she tends to him while he lies in bed. Both the actors face big hurdles. Polley pulls off speaking with a thick accent, and successfully conveys the inner turmoil of Hanna, who never says more than what’s absolutely necessary. Robbins has to perform lying on his back and covered in burn make-up, and because of Polley’s soft-spoken character, he often has to carry the bulk of the scenes by himself. He rises to the occasion, but the material he’s working with is as difficult as his physical circumstances. Their conversations are mostly uncomfortable banter, as he makes feeble jokes and asks her personal questions, which she answers evasively. Serious drama eventually happens, but not until three-quarters of the way through the film, and so it seems unfair to reveal the plot twist that finally makes the story interesting.

There are other characters on board the rig, notably Simon (Javier Cámara), the frustrated chef who can never please the roughneck workers with his cuisine, and researcher Martin (Daniel Mays), who’s counting the number of waves that hit the rig in a none-too-subtle metaphor of fruitless endeavour. But as these characters are never fleshed out, they don’t serve much more purpose than occasional relief from the cloistered conversations between Robbins and Polley.

Coixet conveys the feeling of being aboard the oil rig, but that feeling is mostly claustrophobia, anxiety and boredom. When the drama kicks in, it’s genuinely gripping and moving. But getting there requires a hard slog through the interminable and abstruse dialogue scenes, and a few narrative threads that never tie up, making this film a test of the viewer’s patience.

The Secret Life of Words opens this Friday, Sept. 8

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