by MATTHEW HAYS

The depths of a woman’s self loathing and delving into questionable relationships was the subject of the artful French film La Pianiste, which won over crowds at Cannes last year. (The film was buoyed by a particularly brave performance by Isabelle Huppert.)

Now imbalanced power struggles play themselves out this side of the pond, with decidedly different results. In Secretary, sophomore director Steven Shainberg takes a comical approach to a self-mutilating woman (Maggie Gyllenhaal) who enters into an SM relationship with her boss (James Spader).

Simply put, this film wouldn’t go anywhere without the considerable input of its two leads. Gyllenhaal is stupendous in the lead, as an odd outsider duck who just wants a man who’ll spank her with care. Spader is the boss who’s willing to accommodate, perfectly cast after his kinky turns in sex, lies, and videotape and Crash. Gyllenhaal virtually stalks Spader after he hires her, hoping against hope that the boss man will simply take charge and let her know who’s superior, in the language of swats, slaps and spanks. If nothing else, these two actors seem to have had a hell of a lot of fun shooting their scenes together. It’s an unusual little love story.

What’s less engaging about this entry are the thrills it’s supposed to elicit. In the year 2002, is it really supposed to be that surprising, shocking, titillating, invigorating and/or exhilarating to see two consenting adults negotiating an SM relationship? Must be all those years I’ve spent working for the alternative press (see the ads in our back pages for reference) and watching movies for a living that’s made me jaded or something, but nothing about Secretary felt the least bit risqué or groundbreaking. There are some funny scenes, but after a time, the whole premise began to wear thin. But hey, someone’s getting off on all this: the film’s been getting rave reviews from a number of critics and won an award at Sundance in January.

Beats the hell out of me. :

Secretary opens Friday, Oct. 25 at Cinéma du Parc

>> Movie Listings