Notes on a Scandal

Starring: Cate Blanchett, Judi Dench, Bill Nighy, Andrew Simpson, Phil Davis

Directed by: Richard Eyre

RS: 3of 4 Stars Average User Rating: 3of 4 Stars

2007 Fox Searchlight Pictures Drama

If you want to see explosive acting, just watch Judi Dench and Cate Blanchett ignite in this film version of Zoe Heller's 2003 novel. Director Richard Eyre (Iris) basically puts Patrick Marber's juicy script in front of these two queens and lets them dig in. Here's what you should know: Blanchett plays Sheba Hart, a new art teacher at London's St. George School. Beautiful and upper-class, Sheba has an older husband (the ever-amazing Bill Nighy) and a son with Down syndrome. She is also having it on with Steven Connolly (Andrew Simpson), one of her fifteen-year-old students. It's Sheba's bad luck that while giving Steven a vigorous blow job she's caught by Barbara Covett (Dench), a lesbian teacher who agrees not to make a scandal if Sheba will become her friend. There's more, much more. And until the film goes off the deep end of melodrama, you'll be riveted. This is the bravest, riskiest role of Dench's brilliant screen career. Barbara narrates the film, unreliably, in a voice that is sympathetic mostly to herself. Dame Judi lets us know this is a woman of dark secrets. It's spellbinding to watch her blow the lid off.

PETER TRAVERS

(Posted: Dec 12, 2006)

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Notes on a Scandal

Review 1 of 2

Not Rated

Both of the main characters in this movie are victms of their obsessions and character flaws. They are at turns both victim and predator. Kate Blanchett imbues her character with her trademark vulnerability and willowy beauty, it is impossible not to feel pity for her. Judi Dench is a marvel to behold. Her character is at turns pitiful, callous and manipulative. Her character is the culmination of ones fears about sociopaths. The main weapon is her biting tongue that she uses to flail, berate or even soothe her victims. Bill Nighy is wonderful as the suffering husband who has to come to terms with his wife's transgressions and aberrant behavior and keep their family together. A riveting film to be sure.

Jun 23, 2007 18:05:32

Review 2 of 2

3of 4 Stars

There comes a point in Richard Eyre's spellbinding psycological thriller Notes on a Scandal where I was literally on the edge of my seat. That doesn't happen often. The tremendous power of the film must be attributed to two things: Patrick Marber's suprisingly excellent script, and the delicious screen duo-turned-adversaries that are Cate Blanchett and Judi Dench.

Sheba Hart (Cate Blanchett) is a newly minted art teacher at a public school in England. Barbara Covett (Judi Dench) is a spinsterly old fixture of the place. Sheba (shockingly!) develops a trist with a 15-year old jock, throwing away her nice comfy family. Barbara (shockingly!) reveals a steely obsession for Sheba that doesn't border on the insane so much as it does the sad (because it is so pitifully obvious that Barbara is a lesbian). Once Barbara has ensnared Sheba in her web, after catching her giving the jock a blo-job, she begins a quite cunning game of how far can I go? with not only Sheba, but with her own sexuality. As buoyed by Marber's toxic wit (although I do wish he'd have given the characters more texture) and director Richard Eyre's strong hand the movie is one of those nasty little things you can't take your eyes off of. It's crafty suspenseful movie making at it's most morbid, dark, pessimistic, and well made.

The performances themselves excel: Cate Blanchett, who has always wielded a sort of sleepy ineffability to me, here turns in a performance of delightful unpredictability. Bill Nighy, who plays her husband, managed to make me laugh and cheer in but one big scene, his only of the picture. But it's Dame Judi that left me breathless. She has tinkered in commanding stage presence and she has done bits of comedy in other things, but here....my oh my. Armed with a voice that could cut glass (she narrates all of the film with the disconnected and perversely depressed voice that only a psycotic could muster) and volcanic intensity, Mrs. Dench does the best job of acting I've seen all year.

Sorry to Helen Mirren and Meryl Streep, but as "Barb" Covett Judi Dench creates the most powerful character on screen this year, and probably the most terrifying. She's got bile in her veins and lonliness in her heart. The beauty of this movie is that it showcases both at every turn and doesn't stop to care that it won't warm your heart in the least, except perhaps at the prospect of such hilarious, riveting filmmaking.

Mar 3, 2007 15:14:11

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