Secretary Movie Information

Your Rating

• This movie was an epic failure
• This movie was horrible
• This movie was not good
• This movie was average
• This movie was okay
• This movie was good
• This movie was great
• This movie was incredible

Movie Information

Overall Rank: 2205

Average Rating: 2.8/4

# of Ratings: 165

Theatrical Release Date: 09/20/2002

Language: English

Genre: Drama, Romance

MPAA Rating: R

Director: Steven Shainberg

Actors: Maggie Gyllenhaal, James Spader, Jeremy Davies, Lesley Ann Warren, Stephen McHattie, Patrick Bauchau

Plot: A story of a secretary who starts a new job and discovers masochism. Her job consists of typeing, filing, making coffee and getting spanked.

Alaine - wrote on 12/09/2011

A heart-warming romance showing that there just might be somebody for everybody. Not for the closed-minded or judgmental folks. You'll know if you'll be OK with this movie in the opening scene. Maggie Gyllenhaal is wonderful and James Spader is his usual intense self.

Unknown - wrote on 05/14/2011

Handles the subject of S&M carefully, with humor and insight. The characters are great and the romance is believable. Maggie delivers a great performance.

gideon43 - wrote on 05/26/2010

A Rom-Com with a difference, Secretary treads a fine line veering from the uncomfortable to the downright weird. A love story that is honest, refreshing and utterly absorbing with two of the finest acting performances you will ever see. This is a film that is completely un-PC and it may shock and it may disturb but it is always riveting viewing. The two main characters may be a little strange and twisted but you still end up rooting for them all the same. Open your mind, throw off the shackles and enjoy one of the best films of the Noughties.

MovieAddict
Producer

Not your typical love story!

MovieAddict - wrote on 01/20/2013

Lee Halloway (Maggie Gyllenhaal) is a twenty-something girl with serious emotional disorders who is just released from a mental institution. She returns back home, but things haven't changed since her departure. Eventually she falls back into her old pattern, the worst of which is self-mutilation. She, as most self-mutilators do, inflicts bloodletting and pain on herself in order to "feel alive".

She applies for a job as a secretary at a lawyer's office owned by E. Edward Grey and tries frantically to stay sane, but her dysfunctional family isn't helping nor is Mr. Grey, who is a bully of a boss. We understand her submissive nature and why she would be attracted to her domineering boss played by James Spader. He is thoroughly convincing as a repressed, guilt ridden individual who …

Yojimbo
Movie God

"Secretary" by Yojimbo

Yojimbo - wrote on 07/08/2012

What little I knew of this film made me fear it would be an exercise in misogynistic titillation for beer swilling macho louts. How wrong I was. What I discovered was a smart, sexy and insightful analogy for and examination of relationships, and what they represent. What could easily have been misinterpreted as exploitation of an emotionally vulnerable young woman really shows how a relationship is about the needs of the individuals involved, and if they conjoin in such a way as to satisfy both, who is to judge whether or not it is "right" or "wrong"? Maggie Gyllenhaal's evolution from self harming neurotic to happy and fulfilled young woman is far more affirming and positive than the usual Meg Ryan/Hugh Grant/Andie McDowell infested Hallmark moment churned out by the Hollywood conveyor …