I've spent a lot of this month clearing out my "To Watch" list. One title that I've been eyeing for what feels like forever has been "Secretary," which has been pitched to me as the one good movie about a very verboten subject, sadomasochism. "Secretary" was said to be the rare feature film that took the underlying relationship dynamics seriously, and dared to portray sadomasochistic behavior in a positive light. This attitude was especially prevalent when "Fifty Shades of Grey" was popular, and I will disclose now that I've never read or watched anything from that franchise. I have no particular issue with the content. I just haven't gotten around to it.
Still, this means I built up "Secretary" in my mind to be something that it clearly isn't. It is not a movie that depicts a sadomasochistic relationship realistically, with a clear-eyed, unbiased look at all the day-to-day give and take of making this dynamic work. It's not an especially sexually explicit or prurient film, with most of the sensitive physical acts taking place just offscreen. I can imagine the calls with the MPAA discussing shot lengths and camera angles. The movie was released in 2002, mind you, which feels like a lifetime ago when it comes to content standards. I'm pretty sure I've seen more nudity in random episodes of "Girls." Oddly, there's not much direct acknowledgement of the sadomasochism in "Secretary" until almost the end, with no discussion of consent or boundaries before the leads get kinky - which I know that "Fifty Shades" at least made an attempt to talk about up front.
"Secretary" is pretty down-to-earth, and features characters who aren't fabulously rich or look like Dakota Johnson, but it's still operating in the realm of romantic fantasy. Maggie Gyllenhaal plays Lee, a meek young woman who just got out of a mental institution after a botched round of self-harm was mistaken for a suicide attempt. She gets a job as a secretary to a demanding attorney, E. Edward Grey, played by James Spader of course. The two gradually discover that their sternly authoritarian employer/employee work dynamic is something that they both enjoy, and as the relationship moves from professional to romantic, their workplace activities go from flirtatious to provocative to extreme. However, while Lee finds masochism empowering, enjoying sadism seems to spook Edward, and neither of them are sure how far their new unorthodox relationship can go.
Directed by Stephen Shainberg and written by Erin Cressida Wilson, "Secretary" doesn't push too many obvious boundaries or take any big risks, aside from the way it frames its subject matter as a love story instead of a freak show. I want to emphasize that it is a very low-budget affair. On the sign for E. Edward Grey's law office, there's a "Secretary Wanted" panel that lights up like a motel vacancy indicator. This signalled to me that "Secretary" would have used more fanciful filmmaking elements and fantasy signifiers if it had the money for them. Instead, it mostly looks like a typical indie romance from the early 2000s, with a couple of throwback elements like typewriters instead of computers, and dated women's fashions. There's one brief, vaguely surreal dream sequence that looks like it was made with consumer video software, and probably wasn't anything close to what the filmmakers had in mind.
Almost all of the film's effectiveness is due to the performances. Maggie Gyllenhaal is fantastic, and the smartest thing that the filmmakers do is to put her front and center the majority of the time. "Secretary" is very one-sided in its portrayal of the sadomasochistic relationship, showing us nearly everything from Lee's perspective as a masochist, and spending considerable effort to show us what she gets out of her interactions with Edward. It's an old adage that the MPAA is terrified of showing female sexual pleasure onscreen, and "Secretary" must have been a nightmare for them, because so much of it is built around Lee's uninhibited reaction shots to what would be abusive behavior in a different context.
James Spader, by contrast, is clearly in a supporting role. Though we get plenty of voyeuristic views of Lee in various BDSM scenarios, E. Edward Grey is a very closed off character. More is suggested than outright stated about what's going on in his head, but Spader hasn't been in a ridiculously high number of erotic thrillers for nothing, and has no trouble getting across E. Edward Grey's conflicted feelings, shame spiral, and eventual self-acceptance. Spader and Gyllenhaal also pair very well, with plenty of screen chemistry. I cheered for them to get together and continue their deviant antics, despite not being convinced that the sadomasochistic part of their relationship was actually healthy for either of them.
But I don't think that was the point of "Secretary" in the first place.
—
