Secretary 2002

Director: 

Steven Shainberg

Plot synopsis: 

A socially awkward and emotional sensitive young woman takes on the job of secretary to eccentric lawyer E.Edward Grey. Their relationship soon morphs from professional to a BDSM dominant and submissive relationship.

First thoughts: 

I was not sure where this film was going to go; I had read rather positive reviews and thought it was going to be along the lines of ’50 shades’.

Rating: 3 stars

Review (Unspoiled):

This film is quite bold in ways. It takes on the subject of dominant submissive relationships and shows you the inner workings, without being to brutal or ridiculously funny. It’s a good film with well acted characters and a decent enough plot. I would put in that some content could be looked at as, for a lack of a better word “Triggering” as it does involve actual self harm, not just that of the consensual sexual nature.

Bottom line: 

Decent plot and acting, a good film overall.

Recommend: 

Yes, if you’re looking for a film that’s maybe a little racy, but still with a good plot.

Spoiler Section:

I was taken aback by the self harm content at first, but it becomes obvious that this is the main factor that leads the awkward and heavily naive main character to become open to a dominant submissive relationship. To be honest, it kind of makes her the perfect choice for Mr Grey, as she easily makes the switch from her own self harm to that of a BDSM relationship. She becomes addicted to being dominated and to the new, more pleasurable type of pain Mr Grey is eager to give.

There were some moments that I thought were a little stupid. Not the minor horse fetish scene, though. I’m talking about when Mr Grey sat Lee down to ask her about her self harming and concluded by telling her to stop. It reminded me quite a bit of most vampire shows (True blood and the vampire diaries) in which the vampires glamour or compel their victims to do their bidding just by looking them in the eye and telling them what to do. This paired with the fact that not many people, who self harm, would actually listen in this situation made it even more ludicrous when she numbly nodded her head and there, she was ‘cured’. Don’t get me wrong, I wanted her to stop, but it just didn’t seem entirely feasible. Though writing this I now make the guess that she was just happy someone was being firm with her and she just needed to be told that she could/should stop.

On the subject of Mr Grey, I found him to be an annoyingly multisided character. At first we think of him as arrogant, snappy and extremely verbally abusive. I found it horrendously stupid that at first, he sees her self harming, yet continues to belittle and shame her over her mistakes, but then after telling her to stop, still continues to make her feel like shit. I know that her self-harming should not be used as an excuse to “wrap her in cotton wool” but yelling insults at her is not going to help her or help produce a good employer/employee relationship. Of course after all this, and after starting a BSDM relationship he starts to become very unsure of himself, overwhelmed with how openly sexual Lee has become and comfortable with her sexuality and we see that he really is all talk.

My final thoughts are on the ending. First, 3 days of a ‘hunger strike’ is not really news worthy, and second, the ending was not really realistic in my point of view. I do not believe that after all that, they could just get married and be happy. Both need further therapy, him in particular as I think he has many problem that have to be sorted out and I don’t think he would settle down with her so easily.

I do not have a best/worst character choice for this film as it was really all about the main two and I didn't really love either.

Best Moment: 

The ending when they are lying on that weird bed of grass and Lee is finally content and feels beautiful.

Worst Moment: 

Either when she pees in the wedding dress or the ending as I really was not happy with it.

Please feel free to comment your own views on the film if you've watched it, I would love to know how others felt about it.