Love stories don't come much more bizarre than this strangely touching tale of a sadomasochistic relationship. Maggie Gyllenhaal plays Lee Holloway, a troubled young woman recently released from a mental hospital, whose obsessive self-harming is a concern to friends and parents alike. Taking a job at a legal firm, Lee comes under the control of her boss (James Spader), who has extremely unorthodox attitudes to office discipline and triggers unsuspected desires in the delicate young woman. Both Gyllenhaal and Spader are excellent as loners who begin to realise that they might be perfectly matched, and although the (relatively tame) sadomasochistic scenes may be too much for more sensitive viewers - and the plot veers slightly off the rails towards the end - this curious story of sexual awakening delivers the thoroughly optimistic message that there really is somebody out there for everyone.

A young woman, recently released from a mental hospital, gets a job as a secretary to a demanding lawyer, where their employer-employee relationship turns into a sexual, sadomasochistic one.