Secretary

Reviewed by:
Tony McMenamin

When you’re just out of a mental hospital, what’s the one thing you do not need? Well, for a start, a boss who likes to bend you over his desk for ass spankings. But when you’re depressed and vulnerable like tragic heroine Lee Holloway (Riding in Cars With Boys’ Maggie Gyllenhaal), any attention at all is welcome—and the more demeaning, the better.

Trying to establish a normal life and break free from her obsessive, self-destructive habits, Lee scores a job as a secretary for the seemingly distinguished lawyer E. Edward Grey (James Spader). A strange relationship immediately develops as the maniacally overbearing Grey tries to push the shy, insecure Holloway to the breaking point with his idiosyncratic behavior—thus begins the most lurid office affair since Bubba met Chubba. Take the quirkiness of Ally McBeal, add a nick of self-mutilation, a pinch of fetish, and you will have a dark, sickly amusing drama that captivates from the very beginning and has you crawling on your knees into its sleazy world of law and disorder. A story of obsessives, this humorous tale of a unique sadomasochistic relationship will enthrall, scare, and possibly arouse. Just don’t go see it with your boss.