Rating of
3.5/4
Not your typical love story!
MovieAddict - wrote on 01/20/13
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 struggles to keep his sexual desires from overwhelming him. The sexual tension that slowly builds between the boss and secretary soon gives way to love, as the two lonely, misunderstood and alienated people learn to accept themselves as well as each other.
An insightful look into the psychological and erotic aspects of sadomasochism! There is the nagging sense throughout that Edward is taking advantage of the highly vulnerable Lee. But there is also the sense that Lee knows she's being taken advantage of and doesn't mind one bit. The spankings don't make her feel humiliated but rather give her a feeling of power and confidence. If she finds happiness who is anyone else to judge how it is she gets there? It's an intriguing story which makes for a reasonably entertaining film.
