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SECRETARY Send This Review to a Friend
Daring is the word for "Secretary," shown at the Toronto International Film Festival and a film that flies in the face of convention with humorous eroticism that glamorizes the idea of a woman's submission to spanking as a facet of love and liberation. That the woman is a secretary and the spanker is her boss adds a further note of unconventionality. The question of employer sexual harassment is simply not on the agenda. In this odd film real harassment would be ignoring the secretary's submissive desires.
However one reacts to the issues at hand, there is no question but that "Secretary" is extremely well directed by Steven Shainberg, who creates a bizarre spellbinding aura, and superbly acted by Maggie Gyllenhaal as the willing participant and James Sapder as her demanding boss in the office where she lands a job. The story, scripted by Shainberg and Erin Cressida Wilson from Mary Gaitskill's short story "Bad Behavior," depicts Gyllynhaal as Lee Holloway, a woman who is repressed and needs to break out into the world. The elicit fun begins when she makes typing errors and Spader, playing E. Edward Grey, tells her to bend over the desk. Smack. The spanking ritual is launched, and it turns out to be a lot more intriguing for Lee than a future with her dull marriage prospect.
Gyllenhaal gives a profound performance as she expresses surprise and gradually becomes addicted to the routine. Spader acts with subtlety as he mixes affection with authority in administering Lee's punishment. Eventually Lee is rejected by her boss, but she rebels and wages what in effect becomes a sit down strike (yes, she can still sit down) to convince him of her love.
The questions posed by "Secretary," which won the grand jury prize for originality at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival, are whether the pair will ultimately mate for good and lead a happy life of bottom smacking, and also whether audiences will go with the idea or cringe at the sadomasochism that is packaged so gently and provocatively. A Lions Gate Films release.
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