Spader handles a tricky role beautifully, but this is Gyllenhaals's tour de force. She is remarkable and original.

... Secretary shows how one woman stopped at nothing to get her love. But I'm still scratching my head at the whole thing.

A feel-good movie about sadomasochism, the seriocomic Secretary manages to be simultaneously subversive and sweet...In the wrong hands, the conceit could have turned ugly and offensive. But Spader and Gyllenhaal have a hushed, hilarious chemistry.

An honest and nonjudgmental movie about the unorthodox ways that lonely people often connect in an increasingly disconnected world.