Quirky ‘Secretary’ finds humor in masochism

In theaters

SECRETARY. Directed by Steven Shainberg, written by Erin Cressida Wilson, 104 minutes, rated R. Now playing, Movie City 8, Bangor.

The quirky new sex comedy, “Secretary,” asks what better life for a masochist than the life of a secretary, a career that – depending on the sadist in charge – can offer a perfectly humiliating mix of degradation, domination and abuse.

The film, which director Steven Shainberg based on a script by Erin Cressida Wilson, is hardly for everyone, certainly not for those who find nothing amusing about a self-loathing, mentally unstable woman who finds true love with the help of the back of her boss’s hand.

Still, for those with a taste for satire and – more importantly – a dark sense of humor, “Secretary” turns out the lights and offers a twist on your typical 9-to-5 world: What if there were a secretary who enjoyed being verbally abused and mistreated, someone who craved the discipline of a slave-master relationship and actively sought the occasional slap across the backside to boost motivation?

That’s the situation in “Secretary,” a film that some circles might consider the feel-good movie of the year.

In the film, Maggie Gyllenhaal (actor Jake Gyllenhaal’s sister) is Lee Holloway, a repressed, self-destructive young woman just out of a mental hospital who finds work as a secretary at the law offices of E. Edward Grey (James Spader), a man whose name intentionally recalls cartoonist Edward Gorey, as both share a worldview that is offbeat, to say the least.

Initially, Lee’s relationship with Edward is pedestrian – she does as she’s told, fetching cups of coffee, taking her share of memos and making her share of mistakes.

If it’s those mistakes that incite Edward’s wrath, then it’s Lee’s eagerness to correct them – and please Edward – that ignites his curiosity.

Indeed, as the film unfolds and it occurs to Edward that Miss Holloway, as he calls her, might actually be sexually turned on by his criticisms of her and her work, the dynamic between them shifts as their sadomasochistic tendencies are flung free.

Remarkably, none of this comes off as misogyny, particularly since Spader plays Edward as a man repelled by his sexual compulsions and since Lee manipulates the relationship to get exactly what she wants. It’s she who is the aggressor here, not Edward, in spite of the fact that it’s she who’s being bent over a table and spanked into submission.

That all of this is played for comedy – with a few moments of drama tossed in for good measure – makes “Secretary” one of 2002’s more unusual films, so much so that it earned a Special Jury Prize for Originality at last year’s Sundance Film Festival.

Grade: B

On video and DVD

THE GOOD GIRL. Directed by Miguel Arteta, written by Mike White, 93 minutes, rated R.

In “The Good Girl,” Miguel Arteta’s beautifully observed follow-up to “Chuck & Buck” and “Star Maps,” Jennifer Aniston is Justine Last, a 30-year-old cosmetic-counter sales clerk at the Retail Rodeo, a drab, colorless West Texas department store that looks as bankrupt as the poor souls trying to keep it running.

Indeed, everyone at the Rodeo is barely functioning themselves, which is certainly true for Justine. Unhappily married for seven years to a house painter named Phil (John C. Reilly), “a pig who can talk” who gets stoned nightly with his buddy Bubba (Tim Blake Nelson), Justine is one of those small-town girls who never found the courage to realize her true potential.

And then she meets Holden (Jake Gyllenhaal), her brooding co-worker at the Rodeo who seems as disenchanted and as disgusted with the world as she.

Awkwardly, they form a friendship, fall into lust and are soon recklessly carrying on a torrid affair in the Rodeo’s cramped stockroom and in nearby motels.

Since they live in a small town, with all that implies, Justine and Holden must deal with the ugly ramifications that erupt when their tryst becomes public.

I have a theory about movies that, for the most part, has proved true over the years: Give a film 15 minutes and you can tell whether it’s going to work or whether it’s going to fail, whether a director will connect with an audience or create a disconnect from which most movies never recover.

“The Good Girl” is a good example of this. Almost immediately, from the film’s bleak opening shot, which cuts from the Retail Rodeo sagging under the heat of a blistering Texas sun to a close-up of Justine sagging with boredom under the store’s fluorescent gloom, you sense “The Good Girl” is going to be one of those small, carefully realized gems that expose something true about the human experience. And it is.

Grade: A-

Christopher Smith is the Bangor Daily News film critic. His reviews appear Mondays and Fridays in Style, Tuesdays and Thursdays on WLBZ 2 and WCSH 6, and are archived on RottenTomatoes.com. He can be reached a BDNFilm1@aol.com.