Secretary

Rating:
Summary: Simply Wonderful
Review: Secretary is absolutely the best film I have seen in a very long time, and one of the best I have ever seen. I won't spend any time going over the plot because, if you're reading this, chances are you already know it. This is the first Hollywood film I have seen that treats BDSM relationships in a realistic, and (most importantly) non-judgemental manner. Many scenes in this film will certainly ring true for anyone involved in the lifestyle.

The acting is, in a word, superb. James Spader turns in his usual high-caliber performance, and Maggie Gyllenhaal is stunning(and beautiful as well!) She conveys more emotion with a single glance than most actresses could in a lengthy monologue. Jeremy Davies also performs quite well in his rather small part. My only quibble with this film is a very minor one: it would have been nice if the story had given a little more background on Mr. Grey. All in all, a top notch film. I will watch it again and again, and I highly recommend it to all open-minded movie fans. Just keep the kids away from the set while you watch it!

Rating:
Summary: Oooo! It hurts so good.
Review: The joy of SECRETARY lies in its characters, all of whom are quirky (to say the least). And if you leave the film thankful that you run with "normal" folks, then you probably just don't know the person in the adjacent work cube all that well.

As the film begins, Lee Holloway (Maggie Gyllenhaal) has just been released from institutional therapy. Lee has a level of self-esteem that's abysmal to the point of involving self-mutilation with sharp objects. (She even has her own first aid kit to disinfect and treat the wounds as soon as she makes them!) And whatever therapy she got didn't stick. But, life goes on, so she takes a typing class, and subsequently lands a job as a SECRETARY for the perfectionist lawyer "Mr. Grey" (James Spader).

Mutual assessment soon reveals potential for an S&M relationship where Grey is the "S" and Lee the "M". Courting, so to speak, and foreplay involve the boss making increasingly difficult demands of Lee's job performance with the mutual understanding that the latter will fail and punishment will follow. And what's a poor girl to do when making deliberate spelling errors in legal correspondence just doesn't push Grey's lust button anymore?

Spader's Grey persona is so deliciously creepy - not sinister, just creepy - that his paralegal does her work in such an unusual hiding place that she's rarely seen, even by the audience. And the delightful Gyllenhaal's portrayal of Holloway is so otherwise girl-next-door, except for her preoccupation with cutting edges, that I'm now surreptitiously scrutinizing our office secretaries for barely-hidden scars. And Jeremy Davies is terrific as Lee's nominal boyfriend, the painfully pathetic Peter.

While SECRETARY was in the theaters, it probably wasn't a film that you would've taken your prim and proper grandmother to see for her day trip away from the assisted care facility. It has some artistically done full-frontal nudity and a couple scenes of X-rated heavy breathing. SECRETARY is a stylish and darkly humorous treatment of a delicate subject that allows the viewer to snicker without the guilty feeling of having been discovered with a dirty magazine. (Of course, if Granny finds it knee-slapping funny, you might want to rethink your assumptions about her younger years.) My only complaint was that the ending is perhaps a little too drawn out and tidy. A snappier, more edgy conclusion would have made the film a perfect gem.

Now, where did I stash those red, felt tip markers? I have to proof an associate's work.

Rating:
Summary: An S&M romantic comedy
Review: "Secretary" is very hard to take. I do not understand the S&M world, and I probably never will. Basicly it's the story of shy and masocistic Lee (pretty Maggie Gyllenhaal) who is hired on as a lawyer's secretary. Mr. Grey (James Spader, who else) is the sadist who loves to humiliate his underlings. But as things go on, they find they are compatable as a somewhat workable relationship. Things get way out of control when he starts spanking her for typing errors (Thank God I Don't Work For Him!), and then stranger punishments. No, first of all, none of these punishment really hurt Lee, and they are actually enjoyed by her. I know I am not the most nutreul judge for this movie, but I just didn't find the humor in it. It is very hard to watch her endure the punishment, especially the last one where Grey has Lee sit at his desk, heels on the floor and palms on the desk, and leaves her that way for three days. I didn't get it, sorry folks.

Rating:
Summary: Odd yet Wonderful
Review: I shied away from seeing this movie after I read a description of what it was about. Then I read some rave reviews and overcame my initial trepidation. I know that James Spader, one of my favorite actors, often chooses odd vehicles to showcase his talents, so I decided to give the movie a chance.

I am glad that I did because it was well worth viewing, in my opinion. Strange? yes. Disturbing? yes. Pornographic? no. It is a funny and oddly tender movie...a different kind of love story. But because it is different, is it wrong? I don't think so.

There is a lot of emotional pain in this movie, shown brilliantly by Maggie Gyllenhaal's character, Lee (just out of a mental hospital), who goes to work for the emotionally closed-off lawyer, E. Edward Grey (Spader), a man with many fetishes, obviously an odd duck. Before long, Lee has become the object of one of these fetishes...and she finds herself excited more than she has ever been.

These odd and needy characters are presented as sympathetic and we come to care about them as the movie unfolds. They establish a slowly built, fragile relationship that we may not understand, but the filmmaker does, and he portrays it in a sensitive and caring manner.

Rating:
Summary: Ouch!
Review: It's VERY refeshing to see an unconventional love story like this one. I have gotten fed up watching offerings such as Pretty Woman, Runaway Bride, Maid in Manhattan. Yes, they are feel-good movies but sometimes, I do wondered if those movie moguls are insulting our intelligence. This movie illustrated to us that love could & would happen to anyone of us, & love needn't be fallen to us in a conventional way by any means. What is love, we might say. It's naughty, surprising, tantalising & humorous in a dark way. There isn't much addition in the DVD other than the commentary. For those of you that yearn to watch something out of ordinary, please give this movie a go. You would be pleasantly surprised! Recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Tell your friends, but perhaps not Mom and Dad.
Review: This is a great little movie. It's precisely the kind of film that should (and did) come out of the Sundance Festival; a small budget, story/character driven film with themes largely unexplored by Hollywood. The characters are more than a little quirky, yet very believable (aren't real people a lot more strange and complex than your average movie character?). The story has some dark themes, but again they are tangable and "real" though stylized. And despite the "dark" themes, the overall feeling of the film is fun and funny. If your favorite movies are Titanic, Lord of the Rings, Spiderman, or other big-budget, Hollywood-type films, you will most certainly dislike this movie. However, if you are interested in seeing what good acting, a good script, and challanging subject matter can do for a film despite low budgets, this is a great example.

Rating:
Summary: Sexy, sweet, funny, twisted (in a good way)
Review: I saw this film not knowing anything about it, and that element of surprize helped entirely because if you're looking for a film that's about gritty hardcore s+m, this isn't it. But if you're looking for one with heart, humor, and beautiful-strangeness, then this is a wonderful movie to see. I loved the ending, it is beautiful and unforgettably visual. It's my favourite James Spader film to date, I think it fits him perfectly. And Maggie Gyllenhaal shows she is a talented, brave actress who's not afraid of taking an unusual role. The camera work is beautiful, suspenseful, dramatic, sensual... oh i can't say enough good things about this film, there is not another like it!

Rating:
Summary: this movie rocks
Review: the sexual tension was so thick you could cut it with a knife. I found it interesting and erotic, definately not vanilla.

Rating:
Summary: Sinemaerotica
Review: A quirksome little film focusing on the sublimated dominance / submission dynamic between the secretary and her boss. A girl fresh out of college takes on a job at an attorney's office where the two work out their latent sado-masochistic tendencies upon each other, and what may actually occur if certain business policies were not enforced. It speaks to the fact that indulgence does indeed occur in office buildings frequently, for they are caves of the humanimal beast of the field after all, and nature will out no matter the environment.

Here, it all starts with a typo - typo turns into 'misbehavior', and eventually misbehavior turns into punishment - a literal spanking ponderously administered which thereby evolves into all manner of colloquial humiliation and command mutually indulged, to the point where she would not even eat if it were not with his permission - and she was perfect - indeed, herself becoming her own little "Miss Behavior", at times purposefully mis-spelling a word, just to enjoy her grateful punishment at the hands of her domineering Master. It becomes so much a part of her sexuality, as she derived her E.C.I. with that first spanking, and reaches climax every time.

But one day, the pleasures cease as abruptly as they began, to her profound disappointment, and she begs for her sweet punishments again. She attempts all of the usually methods of seduction - from gifts to cards to flowers, to a plunging neckline, but to no avail. Until finally, she realizes that she must do something 'naughty' to attract his attention, subsequently a large worm in his mail, to which he draws a thick red line around it to mark her error, as he had been doing prior all along, like the authority figure she craves. This causes a reaction that was most unexpected indeed, as he satisfies himself with just the view of her bent over with her skirt hiked up and pantyhose pulled down. Finally, she is fired because he does not fully comprehend the sub/dom dynamic himself, and henceforth abruptly fires her, leaving her isolated from the one she loves, despite the amorous attentions she derives from some spineless loser she had been seeing, whom she was about to actually marry, until her desperate passion eventually bade her to return to the office again at the last moment, where she proclaims her love for him. At first he seeks to remove her, but she remains adamant so he finally issues a command, that she remain at the table with her hands flat thereupon where he leaves her for three days during which she is "counseled" by friends and even clergy to cease, yet her love-filled determination bids her onwards. He finally releases her from her long-suffering, and carries her to a bathtub where he bathes her and loves her until she becomes his wife.

So here we have seen the subconscious covert, transforming to overt expressions made with artistic license to cinematically exemplify the underlying relationship between boss and secretary, sexually subjectified, although such a scenario does carry strains of actuality, and is feasible after all, as relative to the D/s Lifestyle, and is portrayed quite well with the psychological fetish play.

The film begins rather innocuously, becoming more and more interesting, building to a crescendo in the middle, drops off in disappointment, then gradually builds up again unto a most pleasing ending. Her infatuation and subsequent love is impressive overall, and they are both rewarded in the end.

Rating:
Summary: Ho hum...
Review: Boy, Spader must have been at a low point in his career when he accepted this role. Pretty stupid film. Waste of time, certainly a waste of money.