Secretary
Hmm … Crash (the Cronenberg one) meets Swimming with Sharks (lol I really need to review that one, I seem to mention it monthly recently), anyone?
In the end, this movie is all a little too inconsequential to me, but hey, I’m no dom/sub (well, not much …). However, it is worth watching for two of the strangest performances of all time. Maggie Gyllenhaal is miles away from any other role she’s done – comparing her here to her appearance in last year’s SherryBaby is nearly as good an acting tutorial as comparing Russell Crowe in Gladiator to the Crowe of The Insider – while James Spader almost obliterates his self entirely, creating a persona somewhere between Robert Downey Jr. and Rik Mayall (just look at some of the faces he pulls in his first scene) with a little Kevin Spacey from Swimming ... truly, his performance here deserves as much praise as Gyllenhaal’s, I personally didn’t know who to keep my eyes on more.
Also, Angelo Badalamenti’s music is really nice. Between 1999’s The Straight Story and this, I think I’m now willing to believe that his dire score for last year’s Wicker Man remake was just a horrendous anomaly.