For all the dolorous trim, Secretary is a genial romance that maintains a surprisingly buoyant tone throughout, notwithstanding some of the writers' sporadic dips into pop Freudianism.
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09/20/02
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Secretary (2002)
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Reviews Counted:138
Fresh:102
Rotten:36
Average Rating:6.7/10
Consensus: Maggie Gyllenhaal impresses in this romantic comedy with a kinky twist.
Theatrical Release:Sep 20, 2002 Limited
Box Office: $3,806,471
Synopsis: With sheer originality and bold,unflinching humor, Secretary embraces a most unconventional relationship and lays open the notion that love doesn't always occur in the traditional fashion. Lee... [More]
Starring: Maggie Gyllenhaal, James Spader, Jeremy Davies, Lesley Ann Warren
Director: Steven Shainberg
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Reviews for Secretary
Secretary is one of the rare films that knows how to make fun of fetishes while having fun with them, and all the while taking them as seriously as the people on screen surely do.
09/20/02
The movie seems to lurch at times from light to dark, from happiness to horror, from merely sinful to downright savage. Intimacy and S&M tastes have that effect on people who are playing out such a strange story.
09/20/02
A fairy tale romance wrapped within the fantasia of sadomasochistic games, Steven Shainberg's Secretary takes devious routes only to arrive at an old-fashioned finale.
09/20/02
Secretary is a piffle. I didn’t hate it. And I wouldn’t have been upset if the film had broken and the last 30 minutes were forever lost to me.
09/20/02
...check it out if you're into S&M, self-mutilation, or feel that normal love stories are boring.
09/20/02
Full of creepy, quirky moments, this is a great bizarre love story -- and proof that there's someone out there for everyone.
09/20/02
Against all odds, director Steven Shainberg has managed to craft an oddly compassionate -- and often very funny -- tale of an emotionally symbiotic affair.
09/20/02
The movie isn't painfully bad, something to be 'fully experienced'; it's just tediously bad, something to be fully forgotten.
09/20/02
A liberating, kindhearted picture, one whose ending brings with it the feeling that something has finally been shaken free.
09/20/02
Top CriticA small groundbreaking comedy.
09/20/02
Top CriticA strangely compelling and brilliantly acted psychological drama.
09/20/02
Some people want the ol’ ball-and-chain and then there are those who just want the Ball and Chain.
09/19/02
If this is an accurate portrayal of BDSM, it seems like a bit of a bore – but I think that's the point.
09/19/02
You’d think a film that dabbles in deviant sexual practices, sexual submissiveness and self-mutilation would be interesting.
09/19/02
One of the most significant moviegoing pleasures of the year.
09/19/02
The problem with Secretary isn't that it is offensive or unnerving -- although you get the idea the filmmakers hoped it might be at least one of those. The problem is that the story is slow-moving and dull.
09/19/02
Offers something few films even attempt: an honest depiction of the role sex plays in everyday life as a source of empowerment and healing.
09/19/02
Sadomasochism is treated as a joke in Secretary, but the fun of the movie is that it's also much more than a joke.
09/19/02
A romantic film designed to make viewers queasy rather than comfortably content...far from a great movie, but Spader's is a great performance.
09/19/02
Latest News for Secretary
July 17, 2008:
Maggie Gyllenhaal Talks The Dark Knight 
It's a far cry from indie fare like Secretary or Sherrybaby, but for Maggie Gyllenhaal, taking on the role of Rachel Dawes in The Dark Knight was just the logical next step in... More...
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