Publication Date: 03-06-2026

Secretary (2002) review

Dir. Steven Shainberg

By: Steve Pulaski

Rating: ★★★

The theatrical poster for Steven Shainberg’s Secretary shows a woman, presumably Maggie Gyllenhaal, bent over in a devilishly sexy position, showing a conservative black, waist-hugging skirt with long, luscious black leggings. Curving around her legs, which are positioned with one elegantly crossed over the other, ending in black high heels, are the woman’s arms, which reach down to where they kinkily grab her ankles. A more fitting tagline for the poster than “assume the position” would be “what happens next is up to you.”

Secretary may indeed be the first mainstream American film to tackle ideas of S&M relationships in the workplace and doesn’t look to make the relationship comedic. It takes the idea seriously, as it should, forgoing satire or cheap parody of pornographic fetish films and, in turn, creates a relationship we can watch, believe, and enjoy, without the common trappings of diluting the material into cheap smut (despite the film bearing similarities to the now wildly popular Fifty Shades of Grey book series).

The film begins by introducing us to Maggie Gyllenhaal’s Lee Halloway, an emotionally sensitive and self-conscious woman, who has just been released from a mental hospital after bouts with self-harm. She emerges from the institution back to her dysfunctional home with little in the way of job prospects due to her lack of schooling or practical work experience. Lee decided to take up typing, to which she is extremely efficient at, and applies for the secretarial position for the cold and slightly offputting E. Edward Grey (James Spader).

Lee and Grey take on a strange and unconventional workplace relationship, with Grey often becoming uncommonly enraged and domineering when it comes to Lee’s shortcomings and frequent misspellings on documents, which are difficult to fix being she’s using a typewriter. One day, Grey takes note of the bandages on Lee’s legs and demands that she never hurt herself again. It’s that moment went a BDSM relationship between the two kicks off, with Grey becoming increasingly aroused by Lee’s content and submissive behavior to his many orders. One particular incident between the two results in Grey asking Lee to bend over the desk and read the letter she has just typed aloud, with Grey repeatedly smacking Lee on the buttocks in a scene that is equal parts uncomfortable as it is unexpectedly kinky.

Scenes like this exist all throughout Secretary, including another slightly arousing scene that shows Lee in a bathtub of milky water, with her eyes closed, softly vocalizing an answering machine prompt for Grey’s office phone. Moreover, however, Grey suddenly comes to terms with what he is doing to an innocent and emotionally fragile woman, and becomes quietly disgusted with himself, but Lee, bearing a low self-esteem, wants the dominant/submissive relationship to continue, for it excites her and gives her something to anticipate.

Shainberg, who serves as writer and director, performs a tricky and tasking balancing act with Secretary, for it remains serious and competent enough to be understandably credited as one of the few movies that takes a relationship predicated off of sadomasochism that treats it with respect but also keeps the film from veering off into explicitness, never becoming too graphic or too dirty in its depictions. All Shainberg seemingly wants to do with Secretary is raise one core question: “is Lee in love with Grey and really into the submissive scene?” or “is Lee in love with the attention that Grey gives to her and the thought that she is doing something deviant and naughty?” The latter is an understandable proposal, for the arousal of knowing that one is committing a social taboo could generate an understandably arousing reaction.

Secretary benefits from having a writer and director that takes the material seriously but also from Gyllenhaal and Spader, who both put on captivating and incredibly interesting performances for their respective roles. Gyllenhaal wraps herself in her character, becoming effortlessly believable as an emotionally-battered soul, as well as Spader, who’s character’s interior seriousness and struggles come through, despite a bit of an over-reliance on the character’s petulant whiny attitude. If the middle-aged women crowd ever decides to put down their overexposed literature that cheapens the intimacy and purpose of S&M for something more serious and more human, Secretary would be the ideal change of pace.

Starring: James Spader and Maggie Gyllenhaal. Directed by: Steven Shainberg.