Secretary (***1/2)
review by Jon Waterman

A troubled young woman longs to do something with her life. She’s tired of people treating her like a porcelain doll just because she happens to cut herself to alleviate pain from other areas of her life. So, she goes out and gets a job. She uses her typing skills to get a secretarial position with a lawyer. Soon, their relationship takes an unusual turn and the troubled young woman no longer has to cut herself, instead preferring a different form of punishment.

Both the lawyer (Mr. Grey) and the secretary (Lee) have their own little taboos (or big – depending on your mindset). The film centers itself around watching them deal with their problems within the office setting and seeing Lee try to adapt hers into normal daily life. Lee has a new boyfriend whose ignorance and inability to understand her wants and desires just furthers her condition. Mr. Grey wants to make sure he doesn’t go off the deep-end and do something he’ll regret later. The movie is called “Secretary” which means we essentially only follow Lee and her inner-struggles, and that’s fine…it works well. I wouldn’t mind seeing another movie showing the exact same story from Mr. Grey’s perspective. His character is just as introspective and interesting as Lee’s. Perhaps it’s even more intriguing, because we never get any solid background as to why he acts the way he does.

One of the most unusual things about the film is not the personality quirks of the two leads (Maggie Gyllenhaal and James Spader); it’s the size and the look of the lawyer’s office. His building seems to be unnecessarily huge with long hallways. I’m sure that could all be rationalized reasonably, but in the office is something that made me wonder. Instead of law books lining the walls, he has a mini-nursery and other luxurious items. We also never see him work. Maybe it would have made the movie boring, but it also would have helped to explain how he got such a nice space. If we see Spader alone, he’s usually either circling mistakes on a paper or staring off contemplatively into space.

Both Spader and Gyllenhaal give great performances. The film is all about feelings and so being able to read facial expressions is crucial. When Mr. Grey is talking to Lee and explaining to her that she’ll never have to cut herself again, you can hear the confidence in his voice, but look into his eyes and his fear shows up. He’s afraid because the cycle is starting again. On the other end, Lee’s eyes show admiration and trust coming through the shame, because she’s only really listening to what he’s saying and not paying attention to his eyes. The two continuously play off each other appropriately like this for the entire length of the film. All the actors do a great job with their parts.

“Secretary” was wonderfully acted, written and filmed. What makes it so good is that it doesn’t try to pretend like the main characters are unusual people. They’re normal, but they just happen to also prefer to do certain things. The audience is never meant to (or allowed to) pity Lee or Mr. Grey because they suffer from a condition. Instead, we laugh at the implementation of their personality differences. There is quite a bit of humor in this dark comedy to alleviate any tension. The movie makes for an interesting topic, so now let’s see the complementing piece, “Boss.”

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