Secretary (2002) Scene Analysis

I wanted to do something special for my 100th movie of the year (Yay!). Secretary is a long time favourite of mine. It'd be a very long blog post if I talked about everything I love about the movie so I wanted to focus on a particular scene. This contains spoilers more so than my other reviews. 

When Lee is sitting at her desk, stressed and overwhelmed, she takes out her cutting kit. Her alcoholic father isn't getting better, the pressure from Mr. Grey is only increasing, and she's outgrown her childish things but still finds herself stuck to them. 

All of these things are unchangeable parts of her life. She has no other outlet besides self-injury. She knows the only healing she'll get is when the cuts on her legs scab over. Lee wasn't raised with the coping skills to handle big life changes, so when she leaves the psych ward and is faced with all of these stressors she genuinely has no other option but to continue the cycle. 

You can see on her face (Played by highly talented Maggie Gyllenhaal) as she sets out her sharp objects on her work desk. Every step of the routine helps to calm her down. It's not even about the self-injury because she's settled down before she's motioned to hurt herself. Despite Lee's usual immature demeanour, this is a look into her very precise behaviour that manages her mental illness. 

All of this is disrupted when Mr. Grey enters the room. Him silently watching her reminds Lee where she is and she starts to spiral again. She's crying and shaking as she packs up her things without a word. Mr. Grey leaves without saying anything but the anticipation of his reaction seems to wear her down throughout her shift and into her evening. She's sullen and short with her mother and looks overwhelmingly upset. 

Mr. Grey's actual reaction is completely different from what she expected. He is warm and considerate of her feelings. He offers playful advice to help her with her job almost as a silent affirmation she's not getting fired. Lee started off the interaction seeming embarrassed about what happened but his demeanour puts her at ease. 

When he confronts her about what he saw, he does it with the kind of empathy that comes from personal experience. He helps her overcome the actual issue that drove her to injure herself. Lee needed her pain to be acknowledged. She needed someone to not only see that she was suffering, but to understand how. 

At the start of the scene, Mr. Grey describes himself as shy and Lee laughs. She tells him she doesn't think he's shy. 

Despite how heartwarming I personally find this scene, I think it reveals the issue that arises in their relationship later on. Mr. Grey is shy. He struggles to express himself and he struggles to be around other people. He needs to have control to feel comfortable in his own body and in his reactions. Lee doesn't see this part of him. She doesn't understand why he needs to have control but she likes him so she's patient enough to learn. 

It's the core of what their relationship has to overcome. Mr. Grey adores Lee's personality because he can understand her very well. She makes him feel like nothing is going to hurt or catch him off guard. However, he keeps making the assumption that because she doesn't understand everything about him, she's not making an informed decision about their relationship.

Mr. Grey hasn't had a relationship where both parties grow to understand each other more and then in turn love each other more. He accepts Lee exactly as she is, but he thinks that she'll never be able to understand him more. His own guilt that can't be cured destroys their relationship. 

It's a great film all around. I'm not sure if I communicated what I think properly. Definitely check it out if you can!