Secretary
セクレタリー
Discussed in the Journal
JournalNobody Knows What They Want by Thinking About ItStoryline
The whole story, ending included.
A young woman fresh from a psychiatric hospital finds that being spanked by her boss is the healthiest thing she has done.
Lee Holloway comes home to her family in a small Florida town after a spell in a psychiatric hospital that followed an extreme act of self-harm. Her father drinks and rages, her mother fights with him over it, and her newly married sister has moved into the pool house. Lee learns to type and takes a job as secretary to E. Edward Grey, an exacting, eccentric lawyer who warns her the work is dull. She says she likes dull work.
Grey is irritated by her typing errors, then aroused by her obedience. When he discovers that she hurts herself, he orders her never to do it again. One day, after more mistakes, he makes her bend over his desk and spanks her. Lee is excited, and the two slip into a sexual relationship of dominance and submission. She blossoms, and falls in love with him. Grey, ashamed of what he wants, pulls away, even as she makes typing errors on purpose to provoke him. Meanwhile Lee tries a conventional romance with Peter, a family friend; their sex is lukewarm, and he is bewildered when she asks him to spank her. After an encounter at his desk that goes further than any before, Grey, disgusted with himself, fires her.
Peter proposes, and Lee accepts without enthusiasm. Trying on her wedding dress, she runs instead to Grey's office and tells him she loves him. Unsure, he tests her: she is to sit at his desk, hands and feet still, until he returns. She does. Peter arrives and pulls her from the chair, and she goes back to it while Grey watches unseen. Family and friends come one by one, some to talk her out of it, some to cheer her on, and reporters gather for what they take to be a hunger strike. After three days Grey comes back, takes her upstairs, bathes her and feeds her. They marry, and go on happily with the relationship they have chosen.
Starring
Maggie Gyllenhaalas Lee Holloway
A young woman just out of a psychiatric hospital, who finds in her boss's orders a desire she recognises as her own.
Lee Holloway’s story
Lee has harmed herself in secret since the seventh grade, and cannot even hang up on a telemarketer. She takes a typing job with E. Edward Grey, who warns her it is dull work; she says she likes dull work. When he discovers it, he orders her never to do it again, and she stops. His first spanking, over a typing error, excites her, and in the relationship of dominance and submission that follows she grows more self-assured and falls in love. She makes mistakes on purpose to provoke him, has lukewarm sex with Peter, and is fired when Grey turns ashamed. Engaged to Peter, she runs in her wedding dress to Grey's office, tells him she loves him, and sits at his desk without moving for three days until he comes back for her. They marry.
James Spaderas E. Edward Grey
An exacting, eccentric lawyer who wants to dominate his secretary and is ashamed of wanting it.
E. Edward Grey’s story
Grey has everything typed on typewriters, grows orchids in his office and keeps to himself. He hires Lee, is irritated by her typing errors, then finds her obedience arousing. Learning that she harms herself, he orders her never to do it again. A spanking over a mistake begins a relationship of dominance and submission, but he is ashamed of what he wants and keeps pulling back. After an encounter at his desk that goes further than any before, he writes her a note calling it disgusting, shreds it, and fires her. When she comes back in her wedding dress to say she loves him, he tests her: she must sit at his desk without moving until he returns. He watches her from a distance, returns after three days, bathes and feeds her, stammers out his own love, and marries her.
Jeremy Daviesas Peter
A family friend who courts Lee in the ordinary way and cannot make sense of what she asks for.
Lesley Ann Warrenas Joan Holloway
Lee's overbearing mother, forever arguing with her husband about his drinking.
Stephen McHattieas Burt Holloway
Lee's father, an abusive alcoholic whose rages shape the home she returns to.
Why it matters
Secretary treats a woman's wish to submit as desire, not damage. Lee has spent years hurting herself in secret; in Grey's office pain becomes something shared and chosen, and, as the film tells it, an awakening. Its ending gives the two of them a marriage rather than a punishment. Steven Shainberg said he wanted to show that BDSM relationships can be normal, and the film won a Special Jury Prize for originality at Sundance in 2002, with a Golden Globe nomination for Maggie Gyllenhaal. It has also been criticised for idealising a relationship between a boss and his employee that begins without explicit consent, and it was later compared to Fifty Shades of Grey. Both readings find support on screen. The question it leaves is a live one: how to tell a power exchange two people choose from a power imbalance one of them cannot refuse.