2. Secretary (2002)
Lee Holloway is a troubled young woman. Her family is dysfunctional and she just got out of hospital following an act of severe self harm. Trying to assemble some sort of normal life for herself, she learns to type and dates a guy called Peter. She gets a job working for a temperamental attorney - E Edward Grey who acts like a tyrant over her simple mistakes like typos. He gets sexually turned on by Lee's submissive behaviour and they start a BDSM relationship with Lee falling deeply in love with him. However, Edward is disgusted with himself and his sexual desires and fires her. While all this has been going on, Lee has also been having a mediocre relationship with Peter. She agrees to marry him. But when she is trying on her wedding dress she runs to Edward's office declaring her love for him. An uncertain Edward commands her to sit with her hands and feet still until he comes back. People try to dissuade her but after 3 days Edward comes back to whisk her away and they happily resume their BDSM relationship. Essentially, a lovely, happy romantic story, Secretary uses the dark subject matter of BDSM as a plot device very efficiently. There is absolutely nothing gratuitous about this film, the sex scenes are tastefully handled and even have a dark humour in them, if you can get your head around the concept of BDSM. Both of the Leads - Maggie Gyllenhaal and James Spader - are excellent in their roles and portray the complexities of emotion behind their sexual longings with great deftness. Bottom line is, there are people who choose to live their lives like this and can live together happily ever after. Movie characters do not need to be necessarily punished for sexual deviance - living a kinky BDSM lifestyle is a free choice for the characters in the movie and it is good to see a film where unusual sexual practices are not punished but celebrated.