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Secretary Starring James Spader, Maggie Gyllenhaal Directed by Steven Shainberg Rated R for strong sexuality, some nudity, depiction of behavioral disorders, and language *** out of 4 Stars, Movie Grade: A-

Running time: 104 minutes

by Kevin Lang

"Secretary," starring Maggie Gyllenhaal and James Spader was a darkly comic, perversely twisted, romantic tale whose unexpected ending attempted to provide retribution from its own awkwardness by focusing on the commonality in the shared strangeness of two not so normal lives. The film didn't attempt to heal and fix each character's problems. For a change, this film encouraged us to accept the characters, including their flaws.

Maggie Gyllenhaal played Lee Holloway, a depressed, drug addicted young woman, struggling daily to hold her composure, while also recovering from the emotional strain of a recent suicide attempt. Her soon to be boss, Mr. Grey (James Spader), was a masochistic lawyer whose unwilling need for control caused him to lose each secretary that he hired. Attempting to add normalcy to her life, Lee interviewed for the position.

"Secretary" involved the relationship that developed between Lee and her boss, Mr. Grey. This relationship included such perverted acts as Lee yearning for Mr. Grey to spank her for the spelling errors that she made. Both of these characters were well aware of their problems. In the end, the movie opted not to resolve these problems, but rather to embrace them with the realization that you often must accept who you currently are before you can even begin to change, or maybe that's how I saw the ending.

I felt a cautiously satisfying acceptance of these two characters. For what seemed to be a rather twisted and darkly comic story, the ending was surprisingly happy, or at least as happy as it could have been given the unusual story that preceded it. In retrospect, the ending wasn't any more out of place than the story itself, which was appealingly unconventional. "Secretary's" resistance to be more darkly comic left me slightly unsure at first of how to perceive the film, yet in the end I found it to be a refreshing and unusual departure from most recent movies.

"Secretary" Review written November 2, 2002, CTF.

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