James Spader and forbidden treats

When I was a child, my mother forbid me from three things: watching Jaws anywhere but in a movie theatre, choosing vanilla ice cream when chocolate was an option, and watching anything found in my aunt’s movie collection. As a result, I have never seen Jaws, I always choose a twist creemee, and I have a strange infatuation with the movie Secretary. It was the one movie in my aunt’s collection that I would have watched had it not been forbidden (because my mother is a terrifying woman who I would still never dare to cross). I’ve had a crush on James Spader ever since I first watched Pretty in Pink. But I never really thought about the movie much because it seems pointless to think about something you can’t have.

The other day, however, I was in Border’s scavengering the movies with my friend, and I stumbled upon it in one of the aisles. Conveniently enough, I happened to be house-sitting for the director of my major for the week, and he happened to have Internet at his house, which meant I could find it online and not have to pay a cent for it. At a month away from twenty-one (23 days, actually), it seemed like it was finally time to experience something that was forbidden from me.

Let me start off by saying that my mother was in the right for forbidding me from it, and that being said, I think it was worth the wait. It wasn’t by any means the best film I’ve ever seen, but it did have personality. MTV was justified in nominating Maggie Gyllenhaal for “Breakthrough female performance” (but also probably justified in not giving it to her). It was a quirky little film about two people who were destined to find each other, and better off that they did. Throw in a little dominance/submission and the appropriate shame subplot to go along with it, and you have yourself a film. Having watched a less than crystal clear version illegally, I don’t feel the need to run out and buy my own copy, but it did leave a lasting impression on me. I wish everyone could find their match in such a way as the characters in the film did.

This leaves me to wonder what other treasures my aunt had in her collection…