Secretary (2002)

Secretary is a cheeky little movie that gets its freak on in subtle and not so subtle ways. Maggie Ghyllenhall is magnificent as the emotionally damaged daughter of an alcoholic father and a garish Barbie doll mother. After being institutionalized for self-mutilation, she is released on the day of her older sister’s wedding. (Talk about a study in contrasts, dysfunction, and denial. Furthermore, her mother locks up the kitchen knives but never thought to check her daughter’s room for contraband.) While she is damaged goods to the trained eye, she wins a job as a legal typist for a reluctant attorney in his rococo mansion/office. James Spader, it turns out, has a trained eye: He overcomes his shyness because of a similarly haunted psyche. In subtle and not so subtle ways that would give fits to any HR director (or attorney), he heals her of her demons – then leads her to his. From her first spanking to the movie’s consummation, their on-again, off-again pas-de-deux is presented as a tender love story culminating in a free and willing exchange of liberated self-giving. (Of course, to believe such claptrap ignores the multiple alarms going off inside the heads of every HR and legal professional in the room, not to mention every therapist who notes that she is exchanging one form of abuse and codependency for another, or every biology and medical professional who notes that she is exchanging one form of addiction for another. The movie also clearly goes too far in claiming that the saints of old were part of a “spiritual” S&M tradition.) Unfortunately, S&M movies baldly proselytize in that way, just as S&M practitioners troll for new converts instead of keeping to their kind. Secretary is a sensual, subtle movie that knows a lot about our inner demons. However, that alone does not mean you should be convinced by its attempt to make a picket-fence couple out of this guy and a woman who becomes so morbidly obsessed  with him that I am surprised she was not reinstitutionalized. Secretary is sneaky like that – but sexy, in its own whacked out, freaky way. The quirkier the better, I love every scene in that mansion -- and against the tree trunk – because Secretary does get under your skin. 4 stars. (5-2-13, posted 3-2-16)