SECRETARY
(a film review by Mark R. Leeper)
CAPSULE: Maggie Gyllenhaal stars as Lee, a disturbed woman who decides that she wants to be a secretary. When the new boss turns out to be a BDSM freak as neurotic as Lee herself is, she finds herself strangely attracted to the same habits that chased away all his previous secretaries. SECRETARY is a simple story but funny and fun and just wicked enough. Rating: 7 (0 to 10), 2 (-4 to +4)
First be warned. The director, Steven Shainberg, expected an NC- 17 rating and was surprised when the MPAA gave the film a more innocent R-rating. But this film is a little kinky. For the right audience, SECRETARY is sly and sexy and a whole lot of fun. The film opens with Lee (Maggie Gyllenhaal) doing her secretarial duties with her hands chained to pole like a yoke. We then flash back to six months earlier to find Lee a very disturbed woman. Her father is a drunk, she is mollycoddled by her mother, and her habit of cutting wounds in herself until she bleeds has institutionalized her. To escape her nightmare home environment she decides to take training to become a secretary. This lands her a job. She is hired by a high-strung lawyer E. Edward Grey (James Spader) who is disturbed in his own ways, often more creatively than Lee is. Grey's strange quirks have made neurotics out of all his previous secretaries. Now he starts on Lee. Oddly the two sets of neuroses seem to mesh perfectly. When Lee's typing is good, her boss is effusive in his praise. But when she makes errors he is quick to punish. And thereby hangs the tale.
Maggie Gyllenhaal is excellent as Lee. She has the facial expression of a silent film comedian. She can put on a look of "Is this REALLY happening?" on her face that is priceless. James Spader also overacts comically, but not as delicately as his co- star, but nearly as funny. Leslie Ann Warren as Lee's mother has been an attractive presence on the screen for almost fifty years.
The tale is from a story by Mary Gaitskill and a screenplay by Erin Cressida Wilson. I rate it a 7 on the 0 to 10 scale and a +2 on the -4 to +4 scale.
Mark R. Leeper
mleeper@optonline.net
Copyright 2002 Mark R. Leeper
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