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Secretary proves that there’s someone for everyone – even sexual deviants.

Lee Holloway (Maggie Gyllenhaal, The Dark Knight) has just been released from a mental institution. Shy and awkward she is immediately greeted by her family’s dysfunction. Not knowing how to cope with the world at large, Lee seeks solace in the cutting rituals that landed her in the asylum, and by getting a job.

But this isn’t any ordinary job. Lee becomes the secretary to Mr. E. Edward Gray (James Spader, Boston Legal), a man with a fetish or two. Things begin innocently enough, but as Mr. Grey learns more about Lee, he works her into an S&M relationship that, while never carnally consummated, is more emotional than either one of the two realized it would be.

The film opens with many debaucherous promises – Maggie G. in a tight pencil skirt, her wrists shackled to a yoke as she performs menial tasks with her mouth. It is a promise that the audience must wait for quite some time to see fulfilled. But the wait isn’t a bad one – on the contrary, the preamble is almost a textbook lesson on how to build tension in a film. We observe Lee and Mr. Grey orbiting around each other, both unable to connect with the rest of the world, both clearly outside the normal scope of human behavior, both, at turns, hilarious and sad with their limitations.

When the two finally realize their compatible tastes, all of the buildup crescendos into a spanking scene that titillates as it shocks – and that goes for the audience and Lee. The ball is rolling, and the two quickly fall into a spectacular routine that explores an interesting if not spotted map of BDSM territory. The two are comfortable in their assumed roles – too comfortable, it seems, as Mr. Grey quickly pulls back, ashamed of what he’s done.

The break is horrible for Lee, and she tries to cope by making a normal life for herself (though she secretly spanks herself with a hairbrush in one scene). She dates an average guy (Jeremy Davies, who plays Daniel Faraday on Lost), and attempts to be happy. It doesn’t work, and what Lee does then flies in the face of women’s rights and convention in general, taking the film to a place beyond perversion, becoming a love story.

Secretary is a revolution of a love story. It takes a situation far out of the norm and turns it into the typical boy-meets-girl tale that plagues date nights everywhere. But this film isn’t a plague – it is a thing unto itself, utterly original and fascinating.

This re-release DVD has a few bonus features – the obligatory director commentary is here, as well as a quickie featurette. Sadly, that’s it. After watching the film, I really hoped for a gag reel in the Special Features section, but alas, it was not to be. Can you imagine how brilliant it would have been, though? Such a shame.

Funny, sweet, and at turns a little startling, Secretary is a fantastic film, utterly worth watching.

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