Steven Shainberg's feature length film, Secretary, won a Special Jury Prize for Originality at Sundance in 2002. Admittedly, winning an award for originality in what is meant to be a creative industry seems a bit redundant, although given the current state of cinema it's a sad truth that sometimes pictures can be rewarded simply for being "original." But I must say, upon seeing this picture, the award could not have seemed more well-deserved. Certainly there have been plenty of other more "original" films in terms of style and execution to cross this viewer's screen over the past few years, but as far as subject matter goes, this film deals with an issue that hasn't seen much life on celluloid (at least outside the realm of low-budget 16mm indies and the fetish video market) in a very tasteful and - *gasp* - romantic way. It manages to be both clever and original and yet still retain a strong emotional core, something so few self-consciously clever and original films manage (although the recent - and brilliant - Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind comes to mind).

The story centers around Lee Holloway (Maggie Gyllenhaal), a recovering self-mutilator who, upon her recent release from a mental institution, finds herself in the employ of lawyer E. Edward Grey (James Spader). After a tense and enigmatic first meeting with Grey, Lee gets the job which proves to be rather mundane. The relationship between the two soon begins to develop on a far more personal level, and Grey's egomaniacal disciplinarian tendencies begin to create an explosive chemistry with the naturally submissive and self-loathing Lee. The ensuing relationship is equal parts darkly funny, cringe-worthy, and deeply romantic. By the end of the film, we have no doubts that these two characters really are meant for each other and their romance hardly seems contrived, despite often falling into the familiar trappings of romantic comedies (which I suppose this film could be loosely classified as). Yes, the film does follow the time-honored tradition of boy-meets-girl, boy-gets-girl, boy-loses-girl, boy-gets-girl-again, but it does it in such an original and charming fashion that we never feel like we're just watching Notting Hill with Hugh Grant spanking Julia Roberts.

Despite the obvious shock value inherent in the storyline, the film hardly feels like a gimmick - the heart of the film lies not with cheap thrills and the potential exploitation factor, but rather with the rich characters created by these two wonderful actors (Gyllenhaal and Spader). Spader delivers another fine nutjob role in a career seemingly built around fine nutjob roles. His hushed, nervous performance doesn't seem a far cry from his role as the aural sex obsessed Graham over a decade ago in Steven Soderberg's voyeuristic masterpiece Sex, Lies, and Videotape (1989), but it is certainly far more than a simple rehashing. Spader's Grey shifts between spooked nervousness, self-loathing, and domination with subtlety rather than the dramatic overacting a lesser actor may employ to demonstrate such a character's instability. This is not to say Spader doesn't ham it up a little, but fuck, so did Anthony Hopkins in The Silence of the Lambs and he always managed to stay within the realm of good taste without ever taking that fatal plunge into Shatneresque territory that plagues so many typical film "loonies" (*cough*...Gary Oldman...*cough*).