By RUSSELL BAILLIE
(Herald rating: * * * *)
If you put aside the spanking, the self-mutilation, the humiliation, the cruelty and the provocative sexual and workplace politics, Secretary is a nice little romantic comedy.
No, really, beneath its kinky exterior it's a sweet and funny film that is as much a fairytale
as any Hollywood boy-meets-girl effort of more mild censorship rating.
True, it can make you flinch, right from the first scene, where we see Maggie Gyllenhaal going about her office duties, her secretarial clothing tidily offset by an S&M yoke.
But by the end its tale about two folk discovering how their peculiar psychoses might mesh into a tender and loving relationship, is enough to induce a long-lasting smile and leave the heart more than a little warmed, albeit by a film that is quite the guilty pleasure.
That it's so oddly enjoyable and not another dreary psychosexual art statement, is partly down to its two brilliant central performances.
Gyllenhaal is luminous and strange Lee, who's just come out of psychiatric care where she's been treated for her addiction to cutting herself and returned to her unhinged family.
James Spader adds another quietly deranged character to his vast collection with his Mr Grey, a local lawyer who has a permanent "secretary wanted" sign outside his small office.
Lee gets the job, her first.
Soon the games begin, as Grey's obsessiveness and pathological aversion to typing errors makes life hell for his new employee.
Only, eventually the submissive and humiliating part of the job description begins to suit her just fine.
The pair start a deeper more disturbing relationship until inevitably, girl-loses-boy and girl has to fight to get boy back with a feat of endurance that can make your eyes water.
Yes, it's twisted and not recommended for couples on their first date.
But by the time it reaches its perfectly poetic ending, Secretary has become a beautifully bent romantic comedy.
One which touches - and sometimes with quite a whack - the parts others could never hope to reach.
Cast: James Spader, Maggie Gyllenhaal
Director: Steven Shainberg
Rating: R18 (sex scenes)
Running time: 111 mins
Screening: Rialto, from Thursday
