Movie Review: Secretary

Secretary (2002) 

Directed by Steven Shainberg 

Written by Erin Cressida Wilson 

Starring Maggie Gyllenhaal, James Spader, Jeremy Davies, Leslie Ann Warren 

Release Date September 20th, 2002 

Published September 19th, 2002 

Recently, I have come to hate even the idea of a romantic comedy. The genre's many conventions and classic elements have overwhelmed any film tagged with the romantic comedy label. Take for instance the Resse Witherspoon romantic comedy Sweet Home Alabama, which seems as if it were assembled in a romantic comedy factory. Every element of that film was clipped from previous films in the genre and pasted together under a new title with a big star's name attached to the poster. However, just when I have lost all faith in movie romance comes a most unlikely romantic comedy called Secretary. This is by no means a traditional romantic comedy, but it does have both comedy and a very unique romance.

In Secretary Maggie Gyllenhaal plays Lee Holloway, a troubled young woman just out of the hospital after what was believed to be a suicide attempt. Lee is looking for a way out from under her dysfunctional family which includes an alcoholic father (Stephen McHattie) and her overprotective mother (Leslie Ann Warren). Lee has taken to cutting herself with knives and needles as a way of dealing with her parents' constant arguing; the apparent suicide attempt may not actually have been suicide but rather an accident while cutting. Lee is still trying to figure herself out but she seems to take pleasure from hurting herself.

One way for Lee to get away from her parents may be to marry an ex-high school friend named Peter (Jeremy Davies) or she could get a job and make her own way. Lee decides to get a job and, using her amazingly fast typing skills, Lee lands a job as a secretary for a lawyer named E. Edward Grey (James Spader). It doesn't take long before Lee figures out that there is something unusual about her new boss who seems quite particular about the order of the office. When Edward catches Lee cutting herself, he orders her never to do it again and his forcefulness begins a strange sort of courting that includes sado-masochistic punishments for mistakes--which Lee makes a lot of once she realizes how much she enjoys it.

Secretary is so unique and funny that you laugh at things you once may have thought shocking or even appalling. The performances by Maggie Gyllenhaal and James Spader are pitch perfect which helps the audience to accept the weird behavior. Though Spader has been criticized for too often trading on his creepy persona that he has cultivated throughout his career, I found it interesting to see him make that creepiness a likable trait for once.

Director Steve Shainberg does an excellent job of combining likable performances with difficult material. It's likely that if Secretary were made without the amazing lead performances of Gyllenhaal and Spader it wouldn't have worked. Even when the film seems to fly off the rails in the last 20 minutes, the actors save it with their endlessly likable performances and fiery chemistry. In a year light on good comedy, Secretary is a standout. The material might not appeal to all audiences, but the actors will--if you give them the chance.