Secretary

Director: Steven Shainberg
Year Released: 2002
Rating: 0.5

Straight out of the mental institution and straight into the hands of a lawyer (funny how these things work out) - self-punishing Maggie Gyllenhaal (made that way, we're led to believe, by an alcoholic father and neurotic mother) gets a job (without a resume) for James Spader, who is into S&M and mistreats her in every way ... until she realizes she enjoys being mistreated, and loves him for it. Mary Gaitskill's certainly no Bataille (or De Sade), and it's a hollow exercise in Indie-Sex, where the inherent creepiness is altered by Shainberg to be a "fairy tale with a twist," making it easier for mass audiences to stomach. The picture slogs on with this one note premise forever - my friends seem to think it's good up to the point where Maggie goes on a hunger strike and the TV cameras appear, although I'd like to respond that it was never any good in the first place. Spits on the well-intentioned - but made intentionally pathetic - charms of Jeremy Davies, JC Penney employee (and not a lawyer), thereby stating that rich and obsessive wins out over poor and ordinary ... and that they'll all live unhealthily ever after.