Secretary

Rating:
Summary: The Secretary Finds Happiness
Review: I had first read a review of The Secretary in the newspaper and decided I would check it out. I was laughing, crying and even feeling a little thump in my heart. Even though there are some minor parts of discomfort, the movie truly does center on the reality of love and the need for it. It is a love story of a special variety.

Rating:
Summary: Offbeat comedy, treading where others have feared to go
Review: This film deals with the eroticism of classic dominance and submission. And yet it's a quirky character-driven romantic comedy. Maggie Gyllenhaal stars as Lee, a young woman who has just been released from a mental hospital. Seems she's into self-mutilation and even though her mother hides all the knives in the house, Lee still manages do some surreptitious cuts on her inner thighs with her manicure implements. Soon, she gets a secretarial job for a lawyer, played by James Spader. It's a rather strange office where they still use old-fashioned manual typewriters. Weird details like this keep the story unreal.

In spite of a rather placid romance with another former mental hospital graduate, Jeremy Davis, there's no doubt that Lee is attracted to her boss, who shows signs of having his own compulsive mental problems. Eventually, she makes some typographical errors. Her boss then has her bend over the desk while he administers a spanking. She's immediately turned on and starts to pursue him.

The script does well in that it makes the secretary both vulnerable and plucky at the same time. There's a lot of character development. She's a fine actress and seems to own the role. James Spader and Jeremy Davis are excellent as well. The script does not do well when it lapses into dreamy fantasy sequences which slow down the action. It's also longer than it needs to be and makes the same points too many times. And the ending is ridiculous and doesn't grow intrinsically from the plot.

The best thing about "Secretary" is that it's different and treads where others have feared to go. The tone is lighthearted throughout and there are some real connections between the characters during the erotic scenes. However, it sure isn't for everybody. And some people will find it quite uncomfortable to watch. I enjoyed it but it just had too many faults for me to give it more than a lukewarm recommendation.

Rating:
Summary: Just Beautiful
Review: This is one of the best movies that I have seen in a very long time. The acting is the best part. Maggie Gyllenhaal is captivating, and James Spader is wonderfully scary and sensitive, all at the same time. The two work together to create a relationship that blurs the lines between what is grotesque and what is sublime - their love grows from torture.

The love scene at the end is one of the most beautiful sequences that I have ever watched in a theater. This movie is colorful, sensual, and very funny in many instances. I really recommend that people see it.

Rating:
Summary: Original Story w/ Great Characters
Review: "Secretary" is daring and innovative, even though its subject matter could be tagged passe given that DS and SM now are virtually mainstream.
Rich with symbolism, the film plays out slowly and deliberately. The tone and pacing seem to invite viewers to play along. I found myself repeatedly urging the submissive Lee and her dominant boss Edward to, "Hurry up already."
The two main characters are well drawn and developed. Even the characters' quirks and eccentricities are absurd to the point of being realistic.
That said, the film does have weaknesses. Lee's parents provide some insight into the protaganist's character but are occasionally distracting. The film, at times, also seems overstylized and overproduced.
Nevertheless, this is a film that forced me into the mind of a vulnerable, at-times ditzy submissive woman - and made me care about her progression.
The movie is billed as a racy DS story, but really, it's about two people who find in each other, not only love, but a kind of salvation. Lee replaces her cutting with DS. Edward channels his own interests in the relationship.
Ultimately, the two find completeness in each other. Their journey to that is inviting and captivating.

Rating:
Summary: Huge Spader fan
Review: I am certainly biased because i love most movies that James Spader acts in. The Secretary had some problems with character development, yet the original and unique concept made the movie so enjoyable.

it's definitely worth seeing.

Rating:
Summary: A tale of two perverts.
Review: Ambitious film concerning a young woman who has been mutilating herself since puberty. (The term is called "cutting", I believe.) Emerging from the nuthouse after an episode in which she cut herself a little too deeply, she attempts to fit into "normal" society by getting a job as a secretary. Her boss (James Spader), running his own law firm, turns out to be as nutty as our heroine: he has a spanking fetish. I admire the way *Secretary* paces itself: it starts with the secretary performing mundane tasks in the law office while cuffed to long, horizontal crosspiece that forces her arms out like clock-hands. The movie then backtracks several months, showing us how we got to this absurdist image . . . then the plot proceeds from there. The film takes its sweet time, not hurrying the incremental development of the relationship between the lawyer and his secretary, thereby sucking us in and spitting out our incredulity. The director is someone named Steven Shainberg, a man who has clearly studied the films of Luis Bunuel. The surrealist setting is the giveaway, above and beyond the kinky subject matter. Spader's office looks like a chamber room in the Marquis de Sade's mansion: red damask wallpaper, exotic orchids everywhere, sanitorium-like corridors, dark paneling. Shainberg achieves -- intermittently -- the Bunuelian effect of "distancing" with his set design, which allows us to more easily swallow the perverted shenanigans of his characters. He also imitates Bunuel by not giving a hoot about "why" his characters behave the way they do. There's some background matter involving the secretary's alcoholic father, prettier sister, and hand-wringing mom, but Shainberg throws these sops out only for conventionality's sake. (The girl never "makes the connection" that she cuts herself because she wants her father's attention, blah blah. Very good -- but why not leave out the family background altogether? It wastes time.) The film's biggest demerit arises from its virtues. The distancing required to prevent all this from being merely offensive also distances us from the film's theme, which is that "normality" is relative, and that there's always someone somewhere in the world who can love you for the very things that would turn off everybody else. Bunuel was able to pair perversion with poignance; Shainberg doesn't QUITE pull it off. But he's close. He's a director worth watching. -- The actress who plays the secretary, Maggie Gyllenhaal, is perhaps the BEST thing about the movie. Physically and otherwise, she's one-of-a-kind, and that also helps to make this character more believable and sympathetic. She's also brave as hell. Spader has more difficulty with his part, perhaps because he feels he must overcome his handsomeness by acting a little weirder than he has to. But give him credit for even taking on the role, which must have been an agent's nightmare when this screenplay was kicked around Hollywood.

Rating:
Summary: Breakthrough in declining American comedy genre
Review: It was so nice to realize that American comedy cinema is not dead yet. Brilliant acting and a very intriguing and unusual plot makes this movie so different from the agonizing Hollywood production.
I found some parallels betwenn this movie and French Amelie. If you liked Amelie, you will definitely like this one. If you haven't seen Amelie, then you should view both.

Rating:
Summary: Watch this...
Review: If you're looking for a sweet quirky romantic comedy - this is about as quirky as it will get.

Kudos to the cast and director for bringing a not so inquisitively talked about topic to the mainstream. But for those expecting explicit s&m scenes, can't say I didn't warn ya, it ain't gonna happen. It is Hollywood after all.

When all's said and done, this movie is a basic and formulaic romantic comedy. But if you're a sucker for those like I am, take a peek.

And for those who don't wish to watch this movie because the idea of watching a woman in a submissive position - aka bending over a desk waiting for a spanking from a man - is unnerving, ask yourself whether you have the right to judge another's idea of happiness.

At any rate, a topic for discussion after you watch the movie. Ha ha.

Rating:
Summary: Hollywood goes mainstream with D/s
Review: Both characters in this first-of-it's-kind movie were well drawn. It's a first because it shows the S/M, D/s dynamic in a sympathetic, caring, humorous way; and it's a mainstream film ... not a parody or cautionary tale.

E. Edward Grey (an excellent James Spader reminiscent of "Sex, Lies and Videotape") could have used a little more background but that's quibbling. Lee's character was simply marvelous from start to finish. In my small hometown, a few people even applauded at the end. We've come a long way.

Love comes in all sizes, and the discovery of that love makes an engrossing 144 minutes of film time. I've heard people say these two are "damaged." Really? But aren't we all? And how lovely and whimsical to find another who understands us so well.

Lee (Maggie Gyllenhaal) blossoms from a repressed, obsessive, unhappy girl into a self-assured woman all because a strange, obsessive, largely unhappy man sees in her the need to be .... herself ... a submissively strong woman who likes to be spanked, restrained, and ordered around. As long as she knows her submission is understood, she is liberated in the true sense of that term. She becomes the powerful one ... all because she accepts who she is. Acceptance and love. Isn't that what most of us aspire to?

I loved the scene where Lee tries to do the impossible: make a cup of coffee for the new boss who casually demands it. A truly submissive person will understand that scene on a very deep level.

I'll see this again before it leaves my local theater. And can't wait to buy the DVD when it's available. It's a "feel good" movie with an irresistible twist! :)

This movie is not for everyone; but I wish I could say it was. It deals with all the relevant themes of a good, complex love story. It just adds a new level ---- and one that's been around in the shadows for a few decades.

Rating:
Summary: Great Acting
Review: Could not get bored or fall asleep!!
Great movie. A really good time.