Film Reviews

Secretary

• Rating:
• Director: Steven Shainberg
• Starring: James Spader
• Details: US / 104 mins / (No Cert).

A delightfully skewered blacker-than-thou comedy, Secretary is guaranteed to offend as much as it amuses, considering the rather un-PC subject matter. Lee Holloway (Gyllenhaal) is a troubled young woman, just released from a psychiatric institution. Institutionalised due to her propensity for cutting herself, Lee is encouraged by her emotionally brittle parents to look for work. That search takes her to the offices of lawyer E. Edward Grey (Spader, apparently intent on living out his every pervy desire on camera). Her new boss is a strict disciplinarian and when Lee makes too many mistakes in a letter, he decides to punish her with a good spanking. Seriously. Yet Lee finds herself growing addicted to his bursts of physical authority and rigorously pursues her new submissive relationship.
For a movie whose sadomasochistic reputation precedes it, Secretary, remarkably, has no shortage of compassion. Of course, it's a bizarre offering and some will find it offensive, but the depth of feeling and the omni-present wry sense of humour makes this an offbeat treat. And for those who believe that film offers a degrading portrait of a submissive female, Gyllenhaal's performance is so measured that you're never in any doubt that she's the heroine of the piece, and finds emancipation in her constriction.

Review by Garreth Murphy