Secretary
by Sasha Stone

"If you want a lover, I'll do anything you ask me to. And if you want another kind of love, I'll wear a mask for you."
-- Leonard Cohen

Woody Allen says finding love is based on luck. It is the rare pair, however, who have a socially undesirable "defect" that doesn't work anywhere else except within the cloistered confines of their passion. If you can find the person who can scratch your itch, you're among the lucky ones. Whether your itch be someone to cook for, someone to see movies with, or someone who will give you a swift swat on the rump ­ it's the finding and the getting that seem so hard.

Miss Holloway (Maggie Gyllenhaal) doesn't know where her itch is ­ she just knows that ever since she could remember she liked to cut herself. She is into the ritual of it ­ carefully taking out her first aid kit, then deciding where to cut, then doctoring up the cut, then watching it heal. She's an odd duck, to be sure, not a beauty nor a standout ­ a mousy bad dresser who twirls her hair and sniffles all the time. She is not a girl anyone would notice.

But something in those sadly playful eyes tells you there's more to be got. After being released from an asylum (for cutting herself and nearly bleeding to death) she decides she will go to secretary school and become what seems to her like the most exciting job in the world ­ someone's useful typist: "A secretary," she says dreamily. She answers a plain-looking ad and arrives upon Mr. Grey (James Spader), a man who at once seems undone and mysterious ­ his face already contorted by some unknown previous emotional event. They connect immediately, though neither knows why exactly.

Miss Holloway is hired, and thus begins her emotional and sexual transformation. Her submissive tendency invites Mr. Grey's dominance. He gives, she laps up. There are no limits to what she will do. He asks her to dig through the garbage for a document he accidentally threw away ­ she plunges her whole body into the dumpster looking for it. Her aim is to please him, no matter how low she is required to stoop.

Soon, he gives her commands she must obey - he wants her, for instance, to walk home rather than have her mother drive her; she is required to stop cutting herself and dress better. One day, however, too many typos and spelling errors get her in "trouble" and she is then required to "assume the position," by balancing herself on his desk, rear end out, and reading her own typed document. She reads, and then there's the loud clap of his palm meeting her rear end. Swat it goes again and again, until they are both finished and in many ways satisfied.

From there, the S&M rituals begin, and the two of them seem to bloom in certain ways as a result ­ certainly Miss Holloway blooms. She no longer feels the need to internalize her pain because she has, in a way, learned how to reclaim it and thus is no longer a victim of it. But of course, because Mr. Grey is playing some kind of game and can't reconcile his "disgusting behavior" with his self-image, he must stop the sexual play before it actually means something. She tries to find satisfaction elsewhere, and so does he, but sooner or later they must face up to the sad fact that this, in all of its hideous glory, is true love.

Secretary, directed by Steven Shainberg, is a surprisingly endearing romantic comedy that works because Gyllenhaal and Spader have tangible chemistry, and because Gyllenhaal has an unending amount of compassion for her Miss Holloway. If she judged her, this geek-turned-emancipated sexpot would fall flat on screen and become a pointless cliché. But Gyllenhaal creates such a fully colored transformation that we believe her and we see her strength. In a strange way we finally understand what this attraction is all about.

While much of the credit is due and will be given to Gyllenhaal's amazing performance, which showcases her range (she shifts between playful, sad, angry and desperate seamlessly), James Spader seems to have finally found the perfect role for him ­ he can tap both into his omnipresent asshole and the more vulnerable tendencies we've seen him reveal in White Palace and Sex, Lies and Videotape. He seems at first to be overacting, especially next to the spectral light of Gyllenhaal, but he eventually gets his footing and delivers one of the finest performances of his career.

Secretary is adapted from a short story by Mary Gaitskill's collection, Bad Behavior, making it fit nicely within the 2-hour time frame. There is a moment toward the last act, however, where the story falls off into what appears to be a fantasy-ending ­ did it really happen or did she imagine it? It hurts the flow of the film slightly and seems too easy of an out for the character, whose options seem limited, given her fetish. In any case, Secretary challenges us in the end to judge Miss Holloway. She looks us in the eye as if to say, so? So I liked to be spanked and tied up? What is wrong with me? And if something is wrong with me, what's wrong with you?

©2002 Sasha Stone
CineScene