Secretary Release Date: October 15, 2002 Starring: James Spader, Maggie Gyllenhaal Directed by: Steven Shainberg
GLENN KENNY'S REVIEW
Sex in the workplace doesn't get much dicier than it does in this pleasingly twisted black comedy, which finds a self-mutilating über nerd (Maggie Gyllenhaal) discovering empowerment as the spank-crazy assistant to a wound-way-too-tight lawyer (James Spader). Coadapted by director Steven Shainberg and screenwriter Erin Cressida Wilson from a Mary Gaitskill story, Secretary is a marked improvement from Shainberg's debut feature, the affected would-be noir Hit Me. That Jim Thompson adaptation played as if everyone involved had been dosed up with laudanum; truth to tell, Secretary is similarly deliberate in its pacing, but that just makes the outrageousness of the master-slave scenarios depicted therein resonate harder — and funnier. While Spader, whose normal mien would seem to be perfect for this kind of material, appears largely to be channeling Robert Downey Jr., Gyllenhaal is an absolute revelation in the title role — brave, goofy, and, ultimately, mind-bogglingly sexy.
