63
Metascore
39 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 80Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternWall Street JournalJoe MorgensternLee's journey of the body and soul is something else. Maggie Gyllenhaal makes it strangely touching, a revelation.
- 80Rolling StonePeter TraversRolling StonePeter TraversA film of startling humor and feeling. For that, director Steven Shainberg, who co-wrote the script with Erin Cressida Wilson, owes much to two remarkable performances.
- 80NewsweekDavid AnsenNewsweekDavid AnsenManages to be simultaneously subversive and sweet.
- 75Boston GlobeTy BurrBoston GlobeTy BurrLove hurts in Secretary -- but not too much. It's not impossible to imagine adventurous young couples seeing this movie and rushing home to try out the handcuffs and paddles.
- 75Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertChicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertApproaches the tricky subject of sadomasochism with a stealthy tread, avoiding the dangers of making it either too offensive, or too funny.
- 60New York Magazine (Vulture)Peter RainerNew York Magazine (Vulture)Peter RainerSecretary is deeply conventional: Edward and Lee accept their bondage as the way to a more fulfilling life. It's the filmmakers who need to be spanked.
- 40The New YorkerDavid DenbyThe New YorkerDavid DenbyNot meant to be realistic; it was shot by the director Steven Shainberg in a slow, dreamy neo-De Palma style and in candy colors, and Gyllenhaal has a Kewpie-doll silliness that almost makes the naughty parts of the movie fun. [23 Sept 2002, p. 98]
- 40New Times (L.A.)Jean OppenheimerNew Times (L.A.)Jean OppenheimerThe problem with Secretary isn't that it is offensive or unnerving -- although you get the idea the filmmakers hoped it might be at least one of those. The problem is that the story is slow-moving and dull.
- 38Chicago TribuneMichael WilmingtonChicago TribuneMichael WilmingtonThough I would agree it's original -- it's the first aboveground romance movie I've seen in which the heroine is repeatedly spanked, verbally tormented and tied to a chair by her lover--- it's not an experience I much enjoyed.
- 30TimeRichard SchickelTimeRichard SchickelWriter-director Shainberg seems to be aiming for a dark comedy, but mostly his movie is coy without being funny, ugly without being truly transgressive, stupid when it needs to be smart.