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SECRETARY
6/10
USA 2001
(released 2002) : Steven SHAINBERG : 104 mins
James Spader
gives one of the funniest performances of recent years in Secretary
– both ‘funny ha ha’ and well as ‘funny peculiar’. As Florida
lawyer E Edward Grey, Spader comes up with a character with an excess
of ‘sensibility’ the like of which we haven’t witnessed on the big screen
since Vincent Price’s quiveringly inbred aristocrats from early 60s Roger
Corman horror movies. And there is something of the horror anti-hero about
Grey, whose hyper-demanding superciliousness burns out a succession of
secretaries until the emotionally-unstable Lee Holloway (Maggie Gyllenhaal)
answers his latest want-ad. It isn’t long before the professional relationship
between Grey and Lee shades into a very dark kind of romance, with heavy
overtones of S+M – but how far will the submissive Lee go to satisfy the
capricious demands of her terminally insecure new ‘master’?
In a film all
about extremity, the contributions of director Shainberg and scriptwriter
Mary Gaitskill (with Shainberg, massively expanding a very short short-story
by Erin Cressida Wilson) only rarely approach the entertainingly no-holds
barred contributions of their lead performers. Shainberg’s inexperience
(this is only his second feature) produces some abortive, ill-advised
attempts at directorial ‘style’ – what this material needs is a much more
cool, neutral approach. Even the production design by Amy Danger occasionally
feels over-fussy (there can seldom have been so many mauve things in
a single film before) and there’s a general impression of film-makers
trying just that little too hard for a culty vibe: Shainberg over-uses
long-time David Lynch collaborator Angelo Badalamenti’s score.
The script,
meanwhile, could have done with a rewrite or two – the contributions from
Jeremy Davies as Lee’s nice guy boyfriend could profitably have been drastically
reduced, especially as Davies produces the same mannered performance that
almost ruined Steven Soderbergh’s Solaris.
More damagingly, Shainberg loses his way in the latter stretches when
Lee and Grey’s behaviour becomes a local news story – scenes so at odds
with what’s gone before that we (wrongly) presume they must be fantasy
hallucination sequences. By this stage, however, the film has managed
to establish sufficient oddball charm to tide us over the rougher patches
– though essentially a comedy, it’s one without very many laughs.
Shainberg
doesn’t hold back from emphasising the character’s traumas, nor from showing
the destructive side to the central romance – he seems to be heading into
very dark territory indeed during Grey’s last ‘request’ to Lee, and we
brace ourselves for some kind of Bunuel-tinged Cronenberg nastiness. It’s
a considerable relief when this doesn’t actually transpire, and we realise
that we do in fact want this bizarre relationship to succeed – which is,
really, all that we ever need ask from any movie romance.
5th June, 2003
(seen 22nd May: Cornerhouse, Manchester)
by Neil
Young
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