| ..
|
rented
any good movies lately?
jump
to the
boards
and recommend it.
|
copyright ©1999-2003
DigsMagazine.com.
|
Plot synopsis
Lee
Holloway has just returned home after a stint at a mental hospital, on
the perfect sunny day when her perfect blonde sister is getting married
in the family’s backyard. But between her alcoholic father,
over-protective mother, and overbearingly-adoring (and rather insipid)
boyfriend, Lee soon finds herself feeling out-of-control of her own
life, and tempted by the same old destructive habits that she’s been
addicted to since she was a child. Namely, Lee cuts herself, in little
slashes and gashes that pattern her thighs, the scabs and scars hiding
just above the hemlines of her frumpy skirts. Still, Lee’s trying to
make a happier, healthier life for herself, which is how she comes to
find herself answering a help wanted ad for a job as a secretary in the
law office of E. Edward Grey. She arrives for an interview in the middle
of a downpour – her mom drives her, and insists on waiting outside
until Lee’s done – and hands her prospective employer a crumpled
piece of paper, her typing certificate. He’s an odd duck, aloof; he
proceeds to ask her a series of strictly illegal questions regarding her
personal life, which Lee answers, apparently to his satisfaction; he
asks her to start work right away. Mr. Grey turns out to be a demanding
and rather eccentric boss – he doesn’t believe in computers, for
one, which means Lee has to do all her paperwork on an old typewriter
– and despite her most earnest efforts, Lee makes the occasional
mistake. Since anything short of perfection is unacceptable to the
anal-retentive, hyper-controlling Mr. Grey, he yells at her. But when
Lee, relieved that someone’s noticing her at last, turns out to
actually like the not-so-gentle-rebukes, a strange working – and
eventually personal –
relationship forms between the two.
Review
“Cute”
is probably the last adjective you’d expect to apply to a movie in
which the heroine likes to cut herself, and the destined-to-be-together
couple start their relationship not with a kiss, or a compliment, but
with a berating and a firm spanking. But outré subject matter aside, Secretary
is a romantic movie at heart, in which true love – peculiar as this
particular love might be – wins out. In the end, it’s sweet more
than sexy, quirkily funny more than risqué; this has got to be the
cutest movie about sado-masochism ever made. Which may add to that
little edge of disturbing for some folks too: even those who are creeped-out
by the notions of dominance and submission will find it hard not to root
for Lee and Mr. Grey to quit fighting the attraction and just get
together, already. When they first meet, both Lee and Mr. Grey are two
pretty damaged individuals, so emotionally scarred that they’re
barely able to function in life. As played by Maggie Gyllenhaal and
James Spader, though, they’re never pathetic. Gyllenhaal’s Lee has a
pluckiness about her that makes it impossible not to adore her from the
start; Spader, on the other hand, manages to show both the uglier sides
of Grey’s psycho obsessive-compulsiveness, while gradually bringing
out the character’s more appealing vulnerability as well.
(Both actors are just plain perfect; it’s hard to imagine
anyone else in their roles.) When the two finally stop eyeing each other
surreptitiously and the full-on S&M fun begins, it’s not a dark,
dirty thing at all: these two characters so obviously fulfill an
emotional need in each other that the spanking feels like a relief. Grey
might be the dominant one, Lee the submissive, but there’s a curious
equality that’s achieved in the relationship nonetheless: each has
control in what happens between them, each is in tune with the needs of
the other. Maybe it’s not sex or love the way you personally happen to know it,
but it’s honest, and true, and heartfelt. And good too, for the two
people involved at least. In the end, it’s perhaps a bit misleading to
call Secretary a movie about S&M – this isn’t a
movie about sex, but about tenderness, understanding, and love.
—reviewed
by Yee-Fan Sun
--------------------------->
lounge . nourish
. host .
laze
. home .
|
