Movies in Bed: SECRETARY

My oldest and dearest friend Jen has been in town from Vermont the last week, which of course leads to debauchery and adventures. If you read my Twitter feed, you probably got an eyefull this week.

Well, the other benefit of having Jen in town, besides an adventurous partner in crime, is her new-found minimalistic spirit. She moved all of her stuff into her mom's house a few years ago before packing up to study comic book art in Vermont, and this year promised her mom that she would finally purge her garage of all her old things. This is great for me because she's found tons of DVDs that I then proceed to steal from her. Yesterday I "borrowed" SECRETARY, a movie I had long been wanting to revisit. It's strange how innocent I was in 2002, because with my viewing last night I caught onto so many things that I completely missed the first few times I saw it.

I kind of feel like a review of this movie is not really necessary. It's a fun, sexy, and I guess thought provoking indie darling--launching the careers of one of Hollywood's most prolific actresses Maggie Gyllenhaal. For me, watching SECRETARY again last night, felt more like opening a time capsule and revealing a moment in time that doesn't hold up as well as I had hoped. Don't get me wrong, I still enjoyed it and have no intentions on returning the movie to Jen before she leaves, but I didn't feel the same wide-eyed curiosity as I felt in 2002. Granted, I watched it with my brother so I blocked a good portion of the movie out due to straight up awkwardness.

Yes, SECRETARY straddles a line between art and BDSM 101, which probably explains why so many of my ex lovers love this movie (and also why I've been so keen to rewatch it recently), but it's also a glorified fairtale. There is nothing wrong with fairetales, since, after all, that is what we want in our movies. But I take a slight issue with the fact that Lee's character needs to be rescued from her self-harm and the only person who could do it with success (since her shrink was unable to do it in the institution) is a man who feigns interest in her. Yes, ultimately he falls in love with her, but only after she has proven to him that she deserves his attention. Thus ignoring the fact that the Sub in a relationship has just as much, if not more, power in this type of relationship.

All the women in Lee's life are flakey and emotionally demanding, where as the men are there to "fix her." Be it her father, her goofy, asexual boyfriend, or the dominant Mr. Grey (James Spader)--they all want to make her right. I do find it hilarious that Mr. Grey's ex-wife scares the living hell out of Mr. Grey and tries to shame Lee by calling her "submissive." The bitterness in her voice alludes to the possibility that she was once his play thing, but then her own sexual needs and personality changed, while Mr. Grey's did not. Will this happen to Lee following her marriage to Mr. Grey? Or are we supposed to believe that the only way she can maintain happiness and self-love is through a submissive relationship with Mr. Grey? Who knows, really, because she was rescued from an emotionless marriage by a man who barely deserves her love--even after the sweet scene where Mr. Grey bathes and soothes her once he has decided to let her in.

Still the spanking scene is still pretty effing hot.