Quartile rating: 7.5/10 · 1 rating
A young woman, recently released from a mental hospital, gets a job as a secretary to a demanding lawyer, where their employer-employee relationship turns into a sexual, sadomasochistic one.
Secretary is a genuinely singular film — a tender, darkly comic romance built around BDSM that refuses to be either exploitative or apologetic, earning strong novelty marks. Maggie Gyllenhaal and James Spader deliver committed, nuanced performances that elevate what could have been provocateur material into something emotionally real. The cinematography is competent and occasionally inventive but not particularly distinguished. The plot is engaging and confidently handled through most of its runtime, but the ending deflates somewhat, lurching into a prolonged waiting-room sequence and a tidy resolution that undercuts the film's otherwise carefully maintained tonal balance.