Secretary
is a film that doesn’t exactly deal with everyday subject matter, yet manages
to be very effective, funny, sexy, original and strangely touching. The film won
a special jury prize at the Sundance Film Festival for originality this year and
is being released by Lions Gate Films. The film features a pair of knockout performances
by James Spader (who seems to excel at the more perverse stuff - Sex, Lies and
Videotape, Crash) and Jake’s sis Maggie Gyllenhaal.
There
are themes put to film in this picture that some will no doubt find offensive
and though I can’t say I can relate to the sexual gratification that accompanies
receiving or inflicting pain, I have a much better understanding of it’s
nature by virtue of watching this small masterpiece from director Steven Shainberg.
The relationship that blisters to a boil between the two leads is all at once
comical, affecting and absolutely foreign. In a way that lends it something of
a David Lynch sensibility.
The
film opens with young Lee Holloway (Gyllenhaal) being released from a mental hospital
after receiving treatment for self-mutilation. Her mother is over protective and
her father is a full-blown alcoholic. Along with turning back to mutilating herself,
Lee gets hired as a secretary for a local lawyer named E. Edward Grey. He’s
a twisted character straight out of the mind of David Lynch who is not an easy
man to work for. It’s tough for Spader to keep secretarial help due to his
obsessive perfectionism. However, he finds the dream employee as well as tortured
soul-mate in the form of Gyllenhaal. (The film is truly a valentine to the notion
that there really is someone out there for everyone).
The
fun in this film is watching the innocent-on-the-surface Gyllenhaal carefully
wade into these strange waters, tentatively at first, and then once she’s
comfortable in the water, take Spader on at his own sport. She proves to be his
equal in every twist of the tale and what lies at the end of this dark and bizarre
journey is astonishing and satisfying. Though not my cup of tea, to be sure, I’d
be remiss if I didn’t admit that this is perhaps one of the most sexually
arousing feature films I’ve ever seen. I ended up liking this film a great
deal, mostly as a result of the balls-out performances by Spader and Gyllenhaal.
And was pleasantly surprised by how much my wife liked it as well. Trust me this
a strong testament to Shainberg’s ability to take such tricky subject matter
and humanize it.
