Rating: 
Summary: Classic!
Review: I watched this movie last night, and i never even thought of leaving the couch. Not only is it funny, but keeps you interested the whole time. I've heard of this movie and i was so interested in watching it. I wasn't prepared for it to be so kinky and raunchy, but it's in all good humor and the love they both share for their strange affection, just makes you fall inlove with the characters. It's really, really good and i truly recommend it to the young adults!
Rating: 
Summary: Not what I expected
Review: This movie is unlike both what I heard of it (S&M extravaganza) and what I read on the DVD jacket (quirky romantic comedy). It's use of S&M is far more subtle and, for lack of a better word, likable, than I expected. If you're a bit squeamish and uneasy at the idea of S&M being a potent ingredient in the movie you're about to watch, I would still recommend "Secretary." It's about a slightly unbalanced girl (Maggie Gylenhaal, in a very vulnerable, but strong peformance) who, upon coming home from a mental institution, is pushed to get a job. She's very shy, but James Spader's character is attracted to that, against his will, and hires her. What follows is the story of their attraction to each other and the needs that each one fulfills in the other. The S&M element is not overblown and is not shown in a nasty, explicit way. Rather, you see it as just one of the things that gives them an understanding. This is a funny, though still quite dark, love story and by the end of it, you empathize and enjoy the characters, even though they are far from perfect. This is one of the more realistic versions of true love that I've seen.
Rating: 
Summary: worst movie ever watched. period.
Review: so pretentious, so disgustingly uninteresting. bore, bore and bored. the talented spader was completely ridiculed and wasted. what a shame. a terriblely scripted, directed, casted and flawed to the neck bad film. very unnatural, unrealistic, absolutely ridiculous movie. not worth writing anything for this pathetic movie.
Rating:
Summary: sweet, complex, offbeat love story
Review: People seem to be polarized over this film, but in the end it's a sweet love story. It's worth the time to see for yourself. I truly don't see how it's immoral, but maybe it's because my soul is bound for hell. And yes, the acting is superb!
Rating:
Summary: The variety of human experience.
Review: The Secretary alternately shocks and surprises us with its unusual subject matter and intense approach to its off-beat subject. Maggie Gyllenhaal plays Lee Holloway, a young girl just released from a mental institution who is determined to get a job. She notices a sign posted outside a lawyer's office for a secretary. As she enters the office she watches the former holder of this job leaving in tears. She then introduces herself to Mr. Grey, the lawyer, ably played by James Spader. Mr. Grey's office is the first clue that something unusual is in store for her. Rare flowers are beautifully showcased in an exotic setting. Additionally, the lawyer appears to have a fetish for neatness. He quickly removes from sight a row of carefully arranged markers. Lee gets the job and begins her initiation into a new world of strange and bizarre behavior. Lee has a habit of punishing herself for real and imagined faults. We watch her in the bathroom of her home cutting herself. She has scars all over her body from past abuse. She soon begins to cut herself in the office and is noticed by her boss. At first he says nothing, but when she makes a variety of errors on the reports she is assigned to type, he yells at her and then takes sterner measures. He tells her to come into his office and then demands that she lean over his desk and place her palms on the desk surface. She complies and is spanked by the the lawyer. She submits to this indignity and even seems to like it. Lawyer and secretary enter into a relationship which allows each to satisfy their deep need to hurt and be hurt. The secretary falls in love with her boss and tells him so. He is unable to respond to her affections and fires her. Like Bartelby the Scrivener, she prefers not to be fired and visits him at his home and then takes up residence in the office. She comes to the attention of the media who publicize her unusual actions. The relationship between lawyer and secretary improves and deepens when he observes her commitment to him. The climax of the film is both unexpected and original, as is the entire movie. For those new to the sado/masochistic world, this film is disturbing, yet fascinating. What motivates these people to act as they do? The movie does not answer this perplexing question. Instead, it allows us to draw our own conclusions as we watch each new development in the story. For those willing to suspend the first inclination to judge the lawyer and secretary as just plain crazy, a deepening understanding of the variety of human experience reveals itself. We observe the various ways these people respond to the pain they suffer in their lives. The limited spectrum of what we believe to be normal behavior is stretched considerably with each new development of the story. I was reminded of The Piano Teacher, a much better film on this subject of sado/masochism that I reviewed some months ago. The Secretary is not up to the high standard of The Piano Teacher, but still worth recommending.
Rating:
Summary: A twisted love story
Review: Looking at the box, you think it's soft porn. Watch the first few minutes, and you think it's a thriller. After 45 minutes or so, you think you're watching some French psychosexual drama. Then the end of the movie comes, and you find out you've been watching a really good chick flick! Underneath the spicy perversion is a straight-up made-for-each-other love story, and a really good one. The heart of this movie is a truly incredible performance by Maggie Gyllenhaal, whose shy, crooked smiles come off like a deeply repressed Meg Ryan. She is absolutely stunning in this role. The script and directing are merely okay, but she carves a perfect shining jewel of a performance out of a solid rock of material. Her mere presence in any future films will make me take notice! If she starts getting heavier roles, she could turn into another Meryl Streep - her performance reminded me in many ways of Sophie's Choice, despite the much milder source material. James Spader performs his typecast repressed pervert role (Sex Lies and Videotape, Crash) with his normal mumbling flair. It's not that he's a bad actor, it's just that Maggie Gyllenhaal is so much better. He does his part to move the film along and provide the appropriate friction for her to form a character against. Jeremy Davies and Lesley Ann Warren do well as representatives of the life Lee needs to escape. Anyway... if you want a good, dopey love story and aren't afraid of a LOT of kink, and want to see an up-and-coming actress before she starts getting Oscars (she absolutely deserved an Oscar nomination for this role), watch it. But if the idea that sadomasochism can be a form of love for the repressed offends you or freaks you out, go rent something with Meg Ryan instead.
Rating:
Summary: different
Review: This is a different kind of love story but it all boils down to one thing, love. this movie shows that love is different for everybody. i loved it. and it's now one of my favorites.
Rating:
Summary: Great Acting by all actors and and edgy story line
Review: I first rented this movie out of curiosity not knowing if I would like it. The story centers around Lee played by Maggie Gyllenhaal, who comes out of a psychiatric hospital for a compulsion to self mutilate and hurt herself, on top of having to live in a home were her dad can be an ugly drunk and a hapless overly codependent mother played by Leslie Ann Warren . Upon her release from the hospital she plunges herself into her secretarial school where she excels and upon completion of her studies she applies for a position with a small legal office with Edward(James Spader),a rather perfectionist and imperious lawyer who tends to run secretaries out of his office. He observes her and in some ways helps her, but becomes rather severe over typos due to having no computers and typewriters being the only way to make documents.
At first he admonishes her then it graduates to spankings. However once he knows of her self mutilation habit he orders her to stop to which she complies. In a way it becomes a love story and who is to really say that love must always be soft and gentle and that submissibity and domination don't turn some people's cookie. Won't give away more otherwise it gives away too much, it is different I will say that.
Rating:
Summary: It Actually Understands S&M
Review: All right...to get this out of the way, I'm a practicing submissive. It took me a while to watch this movie, because I was afraid of how it would portray the S&M content. It turns out that it is erotic and unexpectedly moving. I was pleased by the fact that, while there is humor involved, the movie doesn't turn the desires of Edward and Lee into a big joke. It also doesn't judge them, or nudge the audience as if to say "Isn't this sick?" It just probes why these characters have these desires, and need them, and why they are happier acting them out. I'm not quite sure if I'm happy with the ending (marriage is a bit conventional), but overall, I loved this movie. The acting is superb. Maggie Gyllenhaal portrays her character's blossoming awareness and sexuality convincingly, and James Spader has just leapt into my list of actors I most admire (also, actors who I find sexy. Hey, I'm a submissive; he's good fantasy material). I give them both lots of credit for taking roles that--I imagine--many actors wouldn't touch. And I also must address a "judgmental" review below calling this movie evil and sick. I say, if consenting adults feel that S&M fulfills them, what is sick about that? Rather, it would be sick to repress their desires because society disapproves. Their souls aren't dead; they're gloriously alive. Perhaps you--the "judgmental" reviewer--should examine your soul instead.
Rating:
Summary: Pleasure and Pain
Review: Sexuality has forever played a tremendous role in our storytelling. In recent years, those roles and themes have become more visible, controversial and erotic. Where censorship strives to dismiss controversy, "Secretary" embraces it and offers us an unforgetable tour of the taboo. "Secretary" forces us to look outside of the box - and see through the eyes of Lee Holloway (Maggie Gyllenhaal). Lee is of a unique breed, who gets pleasure from pain and finds security out of being submissive. Lee returns home for her sister's wedding after having spent time in a mental patient facility. We are immediately find out she is a cutter and inflicts wounds of all sorts for a sense of relief. Determined to not spend all her time at home with her dysfunctional family, she gets a job working as a secretary in a law office for E. Edward Grey (James Spader). Grey is an abrasive anal-retentive man who apparently runs through secretaries every few months or so. We soon witness his growing infactuations with Lee and through his mood swings and psuedo-violent behaviors, a strange sort of romance develops between them. He begins to abuse her and as these habits become more severe, she looks for more ways to receive abuse. Lee must then balance her two seperate lives, living with her family/exploring a relationship with a childhood boyfriend and the taboo S&M relationship she carries with her employer. Both worlds,of course, interfere with each other, ultimately ending with a final confrontation and a surprise ending. Maggie Gyllenhaal has proven herself to be a superb actress. Her character seems so real in all her actions - there is nothing campy about her subtle nature and her excitement's crescendos. Though her role is small in this feature, Leslie Ann Warren lends her usual charismatic prescence as Lee's over protective suburban mother. James Spader is surprisingly cold and calculated in all of his antics. Each expression on his face becomes immaculately complex, as to which we must question what is going through his head as he spanks his "helpless" employee leaning over his desk. One must remember that this movie relys on exposing the dark side of sexuality. Full female nudity, masturbation and sex is blunty displayed in a few scenes. What makes this art instead of smut is the underlying emotional states of the characters. One can only hope to find some understanding of their psychology and desires. Because of how controversial the subject matter is, this movie is not for everyone. And I think that might be a reason I love it so much!
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