Secretary is a film that doesn't exactly deal with everyday subject matter, yet manages to be very effective, funny, sexy, original and strangely touching. The film won a special jury prize at the Sundance Film Festival for originality this year and is being released by Lions Gate Films. The film features a pair of knockout performances by James Spader (who seems to excel at the more perverse stuff - Sex, Lies and Videotape, Crash) and Jake's sis Maggie Gyllenhaal.

There are themes put to film in this picture that some will no doubt find offensive and though I can't say I can relate to the sexual gratification that accompanies receiving or inflicting pain, I have a much better understanding of it's nature by virtue of watching this small masterpiece from director Steven Shainberg. The relationship that blisters to a boil between the two leads is all at once comical, affecting and absolutely foreign. In a way that lends it something of a David Lynch sensibility.

The film opens with young Lee Holloway (Gyllenhaal) being released from a mental hospital after receiving treatment for self-mutilation. Her mother is over protective and her father is a full-blown alcoholic. Along with turning back to mutilating herself, Lee gets hired as a secretary for a local lawyer named E. Edward Grey. He's a twisted character straight out of the mind of David Lynch who is not an easy man to work for. It's tough for Spader to keep secretarial help due to his obsessive perfectionism. However, he finds the dream employee as well as tortured soul-mate in the form of Gyllenhaal. (The film is truly a valentine to the notion that there really is someone out there for everyone).

The fun in this film is watching the innocent-on-the-surface Gyllenhaal carefully wade into these strange waters, tentatively at first, and then once she's comfortable in the water, take Spader on at his own sport. She proves to be his equal in every twist of the tale and what lies at the end of this dark and bizarre journey is astonishing and satisfying. Though not my cup of tea, to be sure, I'd be remiss if I didn't admit that this is perhaps one of the most sexually arousing feature films I've ever seen. I ended up liking this film a great deal, mostly as a result of the balls-out performances by Spader and Gyllenhaal. And was pleasantly surprised by how much my wife liked it as well. Trust me this a strong testament to Shainberg's ability to take such tricky subject matter and humanize it.