Long before Fifty Shades, there was a film called Secretary.
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| "Mommy always said carrots are good for the eyes." |
Steven Shainberg’s cult favorite Secretary confronts head on the full breadth of sadomasochism, the
gulf between dominance and submission, and manages through it to emerge as a
sweet romantic comedy. It presents the
premise of BDSM without compromise but manages to make the topic immediately
relatable and even charming.
Based on
the short story Bad Behavior by Mary
Gaitskill, the film concerns a dysfunctional and maladjusted cutter named Lee
Holloway (Maggie Gyllenhaal) who takes up a job working as a secretary for a
mercurial attorney named E. Edward Grey (James Spader). Family life at home for Lee is as awkward and
unfulfilling as her love life with her high-school sweetheart Peter (Jeremy
Davies). On the new secretarial employment,
however, Lee and Edward discover they have a kindred interest in sadomasochistic
sex games and begin an intense affair, including but not limited to starvation
and climbing into a trash dumpster.
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| "Damn it!!! I forgot to do my stretches this morning!!!" |
What makes Secretary
unfold so well is how it fearlessly explores the nuance of sadomasochistic
foreplay to the inevitable acts themselves and manages to normalize the
scenario and make it as freeing and natural as anything else. Much like the lesbian romantic comedy But I’m a Cheerleader, Secretary makes extensive use of both
set and visual design to create a jarring disparity between the socially
acceptable world and the lives of its protagonists’ acts of
self-discovery. For instance, the home
life of Lee couldn’t be more cloyingly artificial, replete with unnatural color
schemes and plastic sheeting, poised in direct contrast to the wood and
botanical adornment decorating Edward’s law office, building an impression of
normalcy in Edward’s domain.
Casting is crucial to the story working. Fresh from
her bit part in Donnie Darko, Maggie
Gyllenhaal is superb as Lee. Where other
actresses would have shied away from the task of playing an awkward and nerdy
self-harmer allowing her boss to ingratiate himself upon her in increasingly
sexually dominant ways, Gyllenhaal sinks her teeth into the role and dives in
without ever looking back. The perfect
balance would not be achieved, however, without the distant cool of James
Spader. In a performance not unlike the TV
director James Ballard in David Cronenberg’s Crash, Spader’s take on Edward Grey depicts a reserved attorney
with a mystical demeanor about him suggesting a bevy of illicit secrets behind
his cold gaze. Where the recent press
tour of Fifty Shades of Grey calls
into question the chemistry behind the two leads, you absolutely buy the sexual
tension between Gyllenhaal and Spader from the moment they’re onscreen
together.
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| "Is it just me or does this lighting totally set the mood for a beating?" |
While the deviant sexuality behind BDSM will always
carry a dark cloud alongside it even at the very mention of its existence, Secretary is as close as any film has
come to lifting the veil and allowing a general audience to see the light
within. It performs the feat of
portraying every agonizing act of both dominance and submission all the while
normalizing it without sugar coating the acts in question or the idiosyncrasies
of the characters. We’re invited to
empathize with both characters and can absolutely relate to their bond even if
it involves self-mutilation and other various forms of degradation. At the end of it all, it’s all about love,
the depths of commitment and what Lee and Edward can give each other’s
lives. If nothing else, it remains the
most offbeat and unlikely romantic comedy you’ll ever see!
-Andrew Kotwicki