The Inner Life of Martin Frost is a 2007 American romantic-mystery drama film written and directed by Paul Auster and starring David Thewlis, Irène Jacob, and Michael Imperioli.

After completing his fourth novel, successful author Martin Frost (David Thewlis) travels to the vacant country house of his friends Jack and Diane to spend some time alone and "live the life of a stone."

Secluded amidst a grove of trees, the quiet cottage filled with wall-lined bookshelves offers Martin the solitude he longs for.

At first, both are shocked by the other's appearance in the house, but the woman introduces herself as Claire Martin (Irène Jacob) the niece of the owners, and reveals that she's read all of his books and stories.

Sometime later, Jim shows up at the cottage with his orphan niece Anna James (Sophie Auster) and offers her housecleaning services in return for his reading the stories.

The Inner Life of Martin Frost received predominantly negative reviews upon its theatrical release, holding a 10% score on Rotten Tomatoes.

[1] In his review in The New York Times, film critic Matt Zoller Seitz found the movie's style to be "aggressively literary, with plummy third-person narration ... that over-interrogates every development, and close-ups of significant objects ... that aim for talismanic power but don't get there".

[2] In her review for the New York Daily News, Elizabeth Weitzman gave the film one and a half out of four stars, calling it a "suffocating romance" that made her feel as if she were "helplessly stuck inside the head of the most pretentious person you know".

In his review for PopMatters, culture critic Stuart Henderson gave the film nine out of ten stars, calling it a "tiny, Bergmanesque chamber movie" that announces "the emergence of a fully-fledged filmmaker".