thevoid99's Classic Films # 1: Secretary (Pt. 1)
Aug 18 '03 (Updated Apr 16 '04)
The Bottom Line Part 1 of thevoid99's Take on the Brilliance of "Secretary"
thevoid99's Classic Films #1: Secretary
Accepting “Secretary” or How I Fell in Love with Lee Holloway Part 1
Freud famously and bemusedly said that women's sexuality was a dark continent, and in fact so repressed were our impulses, so deeply denied, that it has taken a sea change in mores to admit to some of the less 'acceptable' ones at all. We have been waiting for cartographers like Erin Cressida Wilson to lead the way into this uncharted territory, to identify the routes through the thicket of previously inadmissible appetites and fantasies…At last a feminist—or a post-feminist, as Wilson has been described—with the nerve and talent to challenge the orthodoxies of power and powerlessness that have too often locked feminism into a Manichaean view of gender relations.
—from the foreword by Molly Haskell, author of From Reverence to Rape: The Treatment of Women in the Movies
The opening text you just read is a foreword from a foreword from Molly Haskell in the screenplay book to 2002 film “Secretary” that is written by Erin Cressida Wilson and directed by Steven Shainberg, both of whom adapted the screenplay from the Mary Gaitskill short story of the same name. What the text describes is how women are empowered by sexuality and how sex can be used as an expression of feminism. The main protagonist of that film is the Lee Holloway character that is performed to perfection by up-and-coming star Maggie Gyllenhaal, who finds life through sex, particularly sadomasochism. Sadomasochism is a form of sex that is both filled with pleasure and pain. What Lee Holloway finds in the end is that life is both made of pleasure and pain.
Throughout my life, I always have find films to be an escape of sorts but yet, I always find the most compelling films like “A Clockwork Orange”, “Trainspotting”, "2001: A Space Odyssey”, “Almost Famous”, “Pulp Fiction”, and "24 Hour Party People” to be something to enjoy, yet relate to. This past May, another film has joined this list. “Secretary” about a young, fragile woman who discovers life through her boss, who too has suffered tremendously. I rented the movie twice and seen it 7 times on VHS. Then in late June, I bought the DVD for $15 at my local music store Disc-Go Round and I have since seen the movie about 15 times including the audio commentary from Shainberg and screenwriter Wilson, Behind the Scenes feature, photo gallery, and trailers including an ad for the screenplay. Since then, I’ve become obsessed about the film and thus, I began writing this piece. Throughout my time, I keep thinking it was done and realized it’s not. Earlier this August, I finally obtained the film’s screenplay book. After reading it thoroughly and placing mental pictures of the film, I realized that one element I did overlook and wasn’t entirely aware of was the act of feminism in the film.
In my review of the screenplay, I found that a lot of the elements of feminism got cut out tremendously to make the film more entertaining but the Lee Holloway character still brings a feministic attitude in the film by just doing what she wanted. This is not a review of “Secretary” but more of an acceptance piece to how the film pertains to my own life and the complexities that drives the film, mostly the Lee Holloway character as well as James Spader’s role as the shameful Mr. E. Edward Grey. For me, it was the first time that I find myself relating to not just a female character but also someone who also suffers from pain around their home life and the world that Shainberg said in the audio commentary as plastic.
“Her green plastic watering can. For her fake Chinese rubber plant, in the fake plastic earth that she brought from a rubber man. In a town full of rubber plans, to rid of itself, it wears her out”
-Radiohead “Fake Plastic Trees” from “The Bends”
The reason for the use of the Radiohead song “Fake Plastic Trees” as a reference is because of the times we’re living in. When I was watching this film, there were certain scenes that paralleled a piece of music that I think. Whereas pop music gives me a sort of escapism, I can see songs like “Fake Plastic Trees” be used in “Secretary” since the Lee Holloway character doesn’t feel like she fits in. Other songs that I referenced in this essay pertain to certain scenes as well in this essay.
For some reason, the real world we live in doesn’t feel right. It feels to be somewhat discomforting and bleak. Particularly in suburbia where the image of a nice, serene world of nice houses, children playing, family cookouts, and bike riding seems at first to be an enjoyable site but there’s something amiss in the whole scenery. Take Lee Holloway’s family for example. On the surface, they seem to be a great family with a very perfect daughter (played by Amy Locane in the film, yet we don’t really know much about her in the movie at all, which in some extent is a shame) who had just gotten married and was starting a perfect life. Yet, beneath the surface is a family that is troubled. Lee Holloway is the result of that trouble as she watches her father Burt Holloway (Stephen McHattie) self-destruct through alcoholism as he recently gets fired from a job that he hated. Her mother (Lesley Ann Warren) is also a total nutcase for good reason since she tries to convey a sense of perfection while being overly protective of her daughter from the bad things of the world. Yet, Lee Holloway couldn’t deny the fact that she suffers from the turmoil in her parents’ home life as she stated in the film that she had been cutting herself since seventh grade.
Even as the film begins where she gets out of the mental hospital, in her voiceover, she admits to feeling reluctant coming out of the hospital. She said that the place brought a sense of safety and consistency that she needed that wasn’t available at home. She instead is forced to return home on the day of her sister’s wedding. There’s one brilliant shot in the movie as you see everyone at the wedding in front of Lee’s sister and her husband celebrating their marriage while Lee is way behind in the background from her sister, as she isn’t feeling happy. The only real person she can relate to be an old high school friend Peter (Jeremy Davies) who asks if she’s really happy to be back at home and her response was “I don’t know”. While everyone is wearing some formal, wedding attire in light colors, Lee however is wearing a purple dress. Then comes her father, who had just relapsed, and she goes into her room and locks herself. There, she goes under her mattress and reveals a small box that looked like a sewing kit but what was revealed was something more shocking. Cutting tools, razors, small, sharp knives, iodine, and other things as she uses an old ballerina figure as she sharpens the leg to cut herself but stops immediately as she puts all her stuff in desk drawer.
Feeling inadequate with the world and the turmoil of her parents’ home life, there’s another very disturbing scene where she takes a hot, steaming teakettle and presses it against her leg as she lets the leg burn. Now self-mutilation is an uneasy subject to talk about since the idea of cutting yourself can seem to be disturbing. Yet, I think if there’s one very real definition on why people cut themselves, I think it was best sum up by James Spader as the creepy, insecure lawyer E. Edward Grey as he quotes in a later scene to Lee as he asks why he cuts herself. She replies, “I don’t know” and this was his response, “Is it because the pain inside has to come from the surface and when you see evidence of the pain inside, you finally know you’re here? Then you watch the wound heal, it’s comforting, isn’t it”. Her response after that was, “I, that’s a way to put it”.
His answer pretty much sums up the idea of self-mutilation. Now personally, I had never cut myself purposely yet, I do have desires to. Sometimes, I’m not sure if I even exist. I do get overwhelmed sometimes by the turmoil in my home and it gets too much as I try to isolate myself from them. Especially since they try to make something I can’t be which is the perfect son or anything since my cousins are often tagged as perfect, have great jobs and stuff. Yet, my parents want me to compete with them but I have desires to or really have any interest in trying to be them because in truth, they’re just a bunch of stuck-up *ssholes who think they’re better than everyone. I haven’t seen them for over two years and I don’t ever want to see them, which is why I haven’t shown up for big family Xmas parties. I just can’t stand being around people I don’t know and who have nothing interesting to say. I always feel inadequate towards them and I often isolate myself from them. Sometimes the taunting from my relatives and parents become too much that I feel like getting a knife and cut myself on any part of my body or even to the point of getting a gun and blow my f*cking head off.
I know I’m not alone when it comes to these feelings. I know people want to self-destruct and today, it’s gotten worse in these bleak times of G.W. Bush and post-9/11 trauma. Lee Holloway’s tendency to cut herself is due to all that turmoil and whenever she falls apart, she begins to cut herself. Even the E. Edward Grey character starts to fall apart by destroying things, do exercise and such to run away from whatever demons he have. What the movie shows is that life is both made up of pain and joy and here it is in display in two characters that are really fragile in the outside world.
“She shines, in a world full of ugliness. She matters when everything is meaningless. Fragile, she doesn’t see her beauty. She tries to get away. Sometimes, it’s just that nothing seems worth saving. I can’t watch her slip away”.
-Trent Reznor, Nine Inch Nails, “The Fragile” from “The Fragile”
After that very disturbing teakettle scene comes something very beautiful yet sad at the same time. A shot of Maggie Gyllenhaal as Lee floating in a pool with a one-piece bathing suit and floating devices covering parts of her skin. What I see is a beautiful young woman, who doesn’t think she is beautiful. She is someone repressed and fragile. The one thing that comes in my mind to that scene is the song, “Almost Blue” by Elvis Costello & the Attractions. With its smooth, balladry jazz tone led by Costello’s dulcet, baritone vocals, he captures what I think Lee Holloway is feeling in the lyrics below:
“Almost blue. Almost doing things, we used to do. There’s a girl here and she’s almost you. Almost, all the things that your eyes once promised. I see in hers too. Now your eyes are red from crying”.
-Elvis Costello & the Attractions, “Almost Blue” from “Imperial Bedroom”.
Lee floating in that pool with an underwater shot of her floating downward on the water just gives this sullen yet lovely image. Still, Lee’s reluctance to return to the real world forced her to start a new life as she goes to a community college where she wins an award in typing. In the original script, her mother is waiting for her and sees all of these people coming out of the school, hanging out and smoking cigarettes, and Lee is going straight into the car. Her mother asks Lee why she doesn’t stay and make some friends? Well, Lee doesn’t really trust anyone and isn’t very comfortable talking to people she doesn’t know or really want to know.
I’m like that myself since in my own little community college, I often just do my own thing, go home after school and such. Personally, I just don’t find the people in my school to be very interesting and they often talk about what’s hot and are very mainstream and loud and me, I just like to talk about stuff people never heard about or anything. I don’t really talk to anyone in my own classes, I just basically just get in, write notes or do work and that’s it. Still, it’s a place I don’t really like to go and I’m not sure if I will stay there very long. That doesn’t mean I do have people to talk to, it’s usually at my local used record store where I talk to people.
Reading that part in the script, overwhelmed me in a lot of ways and it paralleled my own life and I think that’s the idea of making a great movie. Find something that a person can relate to in film. Lee knew if she had to do something with her life, she has to find a job. In the original script, she goes through several agonizing job interviews. In the film, she looks through the ads and finds a position for a secretary needed.
Another detail I should note is the production design from Amy Danger. Throughout the whole film, you see Lee’s room that is mostly colored in purple. Why purple? Well, it’s the color of a wound, bruise, or any sort of painful scar and it’s a great choice for a color, especially the raincoat Lee wears on the day of her job interview. It’s also a color little girls love and Lee in some ways, feels like a little girl. In the DVD audio commentary, Steven Shainberg described the scene like it was “Little Red Riding Hood” except the dark lair is E. Edward Grey’s office and Little Red Riding Hood is wearing a purple hood. The detailing in Grey’s office is also worth noticing and the building itself. The office doesn’t have a lot of light colors; it’s mostly natural tones filled with wood. There, we get to meet Mr. Grey for the first time, who looks so tortured as he stares at a picture of his ex-girlfriend and his building is a mess just as we see his old secretary depart.
Then comes the interview and the only real sense of life that is shown in Grey’s lifeless office is a delicate, fragile watering plant filled with an array of beautiful orchids. Even in some scenes, we see Mr. Grey care so much for these little flowers as he carefully shoots something into their stems. This scene also shows a sense of comedy as Lee tries to get a huge water jug into a tank as she gets herself wet while making coffee for Mr. Grey on her interview. After that, Grey feels she’s a bit overqualified for the film and said she’d be bored by the whole thing and there comes Gyllenhaal’s first of many classic lines, “I want to be bored”. Grey isn’t sure if she wants it since all she has to do is type on a typewriter, mail things, answer phones, and all secretarial stuff and said it’s very dull work and she replies in another classic line, “I like dull work”. There, Grey realizes that Lee is a fragile individual and is intrigued by her as he says, “You’re closed-tight, wall “and she says, ”I know”. That mentality showed that she is a wall, she doesn’t show any skin due to her awkwardness and intense insecurities, which is something people can relate to including myself although I often wear t-shirts and shorts.
He then asks her if she loosens up and her reply was, “I don’t know”. Then the phone rings, Grey gives her the phone and then, he says “Less sugar in the coffee” which meant she got the job. That is followed by her mother going nuts with joy and another hilarious scene that involved her in a small, bathtub with this very milky water. She starts to rehearse but gets interrupted by some stupid music box present she got from her sister and then comes one of Gyllenhaal’s classic moments, “Hello, you have reached the office of Mr. E. Edward Grey. Please leave your message and the time you called along with your phone number and the best time to reach you and we will get back to you as soon as possible”. There’s a rare innocent moment in that as she plays a bit from the enjoyment of saying “We” as she becomes excited about this new moment in her life.
She finally begins her professional life that starts out slow as we see that Mr. Grey is often filled with frustrations although he is glad to have Lee around him. In the original script, he thinks Lee has helped his business by being a good organizer. Early, we see Lee wearing crumpled up clothing and she doesn’t really show her beauty. She starts to playfully show her beauty when she puts blue eye shadow and gives Mr. Grey his coffee and a bag of donuts. He asks her to do some office things like find files in a garbage can and he finds himself turned on for the fact that she is willing to do these things for him. He of course, is a repressed individual himself as he exercises his sexual demons and presents himself as a brooding individual with little to care for except for a group of orchids, which he carefully waters and animals, including the mice that comes into his building that he traps but sets them free outside of his building.
Lee gets her first test of pressure when he makes her do more things including opening mouse traps as he finally sees the band aids on her legs. She notices that he sees her but the moment of intimacy stops when a phone call comes and the appearance of Tricia O’Connor (Jessica Tuck). Tricia O’Connor is often to be said as Mr. Grey’s ex-wife, ex-girlfriend, or a former secretary who became, a better lawyer. She keeps asking Lee for Mr. Grey but she is trying to sway a phone call where she gives her a threatening name, “Submissive” and Lee is confused all of a sudden and she screams for Mr. Grey and he’s scared of her.
Now comes another favorite part of the scene and it’s Gyllenhaal’s body language in the film. Now her body is a perfect definition of the word, lanky. She is thin, bony, with stringy hair and all crumpled up of sorts as she looks for Mr. Grey. My favorite little part is when she sticks out her neck and asks for Mr. Grey. She hears him as she learns he’s hiding in the closet and she’s like, “OK” and tells Tricia that he isn’t here. Then comes another phone call and it’s from Lee’s dad and oh, with Tricia and her dad, it’s overwhelming. She asks her dad to hold on while he’s calling her from downtown drunk and she asks if Tricia had any message for Grey, and the message was her stamping on Grey’s coat and tells Lee for him to sign the settlement. Then she returns to her dad who just left and Lee starts to fall apart completely as she bangs the phone relentlessly. Just as she is about to cut herself, she sees Mr. Grey and goes into denial mode as her body gets tightened up even more as she straighten files and everything and that’s where Grey sees her in this fragile state for the very first time.
Mr. Grey would see her again, unbeknownst to her, during a dinner conversation with Peter at a Laundromat and he feels a bit threatened by Peter’s antics. Peter meanwhile, is talking to Lee about relationships and she is a bit scared and it eventually gets worse during a dinner conversation with his parents when his mother suggests that they get married, shortly after Peter said Lee is his soul mate. In the script, Lee having a panic attack of sorts and another self-mutilation episode follows that. Jeremy Davies makes Peter more of an oddball through his improvisation rather than this loser, hippie-like guy in Wilson’s original script who ends up become less likeable in the film. Thankfully, Davies makes the character a loveable loser who doesn’t get it and becomes someone Lee doesn’t want due to the fact that she, later on, wouldn’t spank her or do anything. He just becomes someone Lee would not want and if she would’ve married him, the worst fate would be that she might become his parents instead of hers and that’s a worse fate.
After Mr. Grey sees the antics of Peter and Lee, in their drunken state, he reveals his own weapon that he uses very often, the red Sharpie pen. Whereas Lee uses her cutting tools to inflict pain on herself, Mr. Grey uses the pens to inflict pain on others. He used the pens to show the typos Lee makes on the letters and he keeps making her to write perfect letters. What Grey is doing is pushing her button and her nerves. Since she can’t cut herself in front of Mr. Grey or a client, she cuts a part of her dress and writes a little poem, “A piece of myself, a small sacrifice. To E. Edward Grey, to get it right” (Note: the last four words in that poem is from the original script). She tears the poem and gets to the letter when Grey notices the cut on her dress. There, James Spader comes out with one of his great lines, “Lee, when people come into this office. You are a visual representation of my business and the way you dress is disgusting”. Lee says, “Uh… sorry” and Grey continues, “You’re tapping your toe all the time and playing with your hair. You’re either going to have to wear a hairnet or stop playing with your hair. And another thing, do you realize that you’re sniffling?” and she responds, “I-I sniffled?” and he then says, “And what is with your tongue when you’re typing” and she then says, “I’m sorry, I didn’t know I sniffled” and he comes out with this cold, response, “Well, you do”.
Now that is a great moment from James Spader that is followed by another hilarious moment from Gyllenhaal where she talks to herself saying, “Mr. Grey, thank you so much for your helpful suggestions. Because I am trying to be the very best secretary, for you” but her nerves gets to her as she hears Mr. Grey screaming on the phone and she goes into her desk and play with her hair. The next day in the office, she dresses more professional with a hairnet as she is being called to Grey’s library. He tests her ability to do things including answering the phone. She talks on the phone softly but Grey feels she should act stronger when talking on the phone, which she does. There, comes a moment of intimacy where she begins to talk about her problems, Peter, and awkwardness and he reveals that he’s shy to. After Grey’s self-mutilation talk, he tells her to never, ever, cut herself again. He says its time to move on and let her go home early and there’s no need for her mother to pick her up. Lee does what Grey tells her and finds a new door starting to open for her.
The next day, Lee didn’t bring her sewing kit and iodine but she did make another typo. Mr. Grey however, wasn’t impressed. The perfectionist in him is filled with frustration and he takes it out on Lee as she starts to sniffle and uh oh, she just made Grey go nuts and he tells her to come to his office with the letter. Now this is where the film’s climax comes and senses of confusion comes whether you’re about to scare, excited or feel both. We now have reached the sadomasochistic part of this essay.
(End of Part 1)
Part 2:
http://www.epinions.com/content_3458965636
“Secretary” Film Review:
http://www.epinions.com/content_101047570052
“Secretary” Screenplay Book:
http://www.epinions.com/content_108391992964
"Secretary" Soundtrack:
http://www.epinions.com/content_125943189124
© thevoid99/Okrad Publishing, 2003.
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