Notes on a Scandal (2006) User Reviews (318)

The Dame vs. The Cate

[WriterDave · 8/10 · 8 January 2007]

Instead of becoming the tawdry, salacious affair it could've easily been, two masterful and textured performances from two of our greatest actresses catapult "Notes on a Scandal" to the echelon of art-house entertainment. In one corner, we have Dame Judi Dench as the lonely schoolmarm and mentor. In the other corner, we have Cate Blanchett as the flighty but endearing new art teacher just begging for someone to take her under their wing. The film starts innocuously enough, with the two women becoming fast friends, with Blanchett inviting Dench into her home and family, and Dench all too eager to find a new best friend. Deliciously seasoned with spicy subtexts involving the bourgeois sense of entitlement, the bitterness of the lower middle class, the candidness of those with everything who never seem to be satisfied, the resentment of those sucked into this confidence, and of course, the psycho-sexual entrapments of all relationships, "Notes on a Scandal" is rife with everyday tragedy. The convoluted subtexts often take precedence over what is being seen on screen, until Dench's voice-over entrances us and sucks us in.

In the early scenes where Dench is describing her burgeoning fascination with Blanchett, the audience shares in the allure as Dench paints beautifully the appeal of Blanchett's talents as an actress. Soon, though, the fantasy makes way for reality, and Blanchett as raw and vulnerable as she has ever been falls under the spell of a troubled 15 year-old boy with whom she begins an illicit affair. Blanchett's folly is mirrored in Dench's obsession with becoming her sole confidant.

Director Richard Eyre (who previously directed Dench in the superb "Iris") structures the film in a crisp clip. As the plot quickly goes through the motions, secrets are revealed, true natures are uncovered, and the lives of both women become tragically entangled as they unravel.

Enough can't be said about Dench's mastering of the thespian art form. She could've easily dived head first into this role and delivered something akin to Kathy Bates turn as the mad spinster in "Misery." Instead, she adds subtlety, humor, and melancholy in her perfectly balanced performance that allows you to sympathize with her character for the loneliness she feels while at the same time hating her for her opportunism and bitterness.

Likewise, Blanchett, manages to play to our sympathies, and it's easy to see why Dench, the boy in question, and Blanchett's husband (a shockingly good Bill Nighy), are completely smitten with her despite her impetuousness.

With betrayal leading to hatred and a complete breakdown of all things sacred in human connections, the climactic showdown between The Dame and The Cate is the type of goose-bump inducing acting tour de force moviegoers dream about. There's also a sense of a symbolic passing of the torch from one generation of great actresses to the next. Far from being just the highbrow version of "Single White Female," "Notes on a Scandal" entertains and provokes those willing to enjoy the psychologically complex roller coaster.

Just see the movie

[dbborroughs · 7/10 · 10 February 2007]

I enjoyed this movie a great deal. The acting was excellent across the board and the story about the relationship of two school teachers and what transpires between them is involving. The problem for me was that in reading the reviews for the film I found that the reviewers revealed way too much about the plot. I found this to be one of those times when it was best to know as little as possible going in since there was a chance that knowing plot points might signal later revelations. Simply put the reviewers said too much so after a certain point it became clear what was going to happen, The result was that I enjoyed the film less than I might have other wise. Take my advice ignore what people say about the film and just see it

Jarring Notes Superbly Performed

[littlemartinarocena · 7/10 · 26 February 2007]

Judi Dench and Cate Blanchet both have played the fierce Queen Elizabeth I in their careers and here they fight for the crown in a royal match that is as entertaining as it is jarring. Two civilized women breaking into very uncivilized patterns of behavior. A highbrow story with a tabloid sensibility performed with truth and gusto. Bette Davis would have killed for Judi Dench's part at the time of Baby Jane and although there is nothing grotesque in the way Dame Judy presents us her monster, the monster herself is grotesque. She explains, in a witty and consistent voice over, what's in her mind. The center of her intentions become so appallingly clear to us that Cate Blanchet's slowness to catch up becomes exasperating. Maybe her suffocating domestic situation throws her into the arms of her absurdity. She seems a woman searching for validation without any real vocation. A teacher who doesn't believe she can teach, a mediocre wife a light weight mother. Judi Dench is relentlessly solid in her madness made of longing and fears. I left the theater with a desperate need for a double scotch on the rocks, just to take a strange taste off my mouth.

A Tale of Obsession, Loneliness and Machiavellism

[claudio_carvalho · 9/10 · 5 February 2008]

The bitter, cynical and lonely Barbara Covett (Judi Dench) is a tough and conservative teacher near to retirement that is loathed by her colleagues and students. In the loneliness of her apartment, she spends her spare time writing her journal, taking care of her old cat Portia and missing her special friend Jennifer Dodd. When Sheba Hart (Cate Blanchett) joins the high-school as the new art teacher, Barbara dedicates her attention to the newcomer, writing sharp and unpleasant comments about her behavior and clothes. When Barbara helps Sheba in a difficult situation with two students, the grateful Sheba invites her to have lunch with her family. Sheba introduces her husband and former professor Richard Hart (Bill Nighy), who is about twenty years older than she; her rebellious teenager daughter Polly (Juno Temple); and her son Ben (Max Lewis) that has Dawn Syndrome. Barbara becomes close to Sheba, but when she accidentally discovers that Sheba is having an affair with the fifteen year-old student Steven Connolly (Andrew Simpson), Barbara sees the chance to manipulate and get closer to Sheba, hiding the secret from the school headmaster. When Portia dies and Sheba does not stay with Barbara in the veterinary office to see Ben in a theater play, Barbara plots a Machiavellian revenge against Sheba, creating a scandal and consequent turmoil in their lives.

"Note on a Scandal" is a gem to be discovered by movie lovers. This tale of obsession, loneliness and Machiavellism is supported by a magnificent screenplay and awesome performances of Judi Dench and Cate Blanchett, two of the best actresses of the cinema industry in the present days. The story has drama, romance, passion, lust, obsession and eroticism disclosed in an adequate pace. The development of the lead characters is perfect, disclosing two lonely and obsessed women, one compulsive and loathed by everybody around her, and the other that is the object of desire of the old teacher, her husband and a young student. The result is one of the best movies that I have recently seen. My vote is nine.

Title (Brazil): "Notas Sobre Um Escândalo" ("Notes on a Scandal")

State of the art acting by Dench, Blanchett and Nighy

[fmoramar · 9/10 · 29 December 2006]

What a treat to watch three of the best actors of our time in the same movie! Judy Dench is an international treasure; Cate Blanchett never looked better or created a more compelling character in any of her other movies, and I had the good fortune to discover Bill Nighy on Broadway in "The Vertical Hour" with Julianne Moore the night before I saw "Notes from a Scandal," and I now want to see everything he's done. A superlative creator of character. "Notes from a Scandal" tells us a lot about the "British" penchant for relishing "scandals" (they invented the tabloid press) and also about the odd, intersecting relationships that have become a nearly commonplace reality in the contemporary world. Both Blanchett and Dench (as Sheba and Barbara) teach at the same Islington secondary school. And both, in very different ways, embark on "inappropriate" relationships that create turmoil in their lives and the lives of their community. Judy Dench conveys the desperate loneliness of her character's life and a remarkable scene of her smoking a cigarette in a bathtub conveys the distinction between her kind of loneliness--an older, unattractive, single woman with no real connections in life--and the more endurable kinds of loneliness that many of us share. This is a gripping film that moves crisply from one scene to the next, missing only a very few beats along the way. A must see.

tense twisted story

[antoniotierno · 7/10 · 25 February 2007]

Certainly a very stylish drama, riveting and brilliant, rising above the modern-day thrillers due to stunning performances of two very gifted actresses. It's both dramatic and funny, Judy Dench and Cate Blanchett are delicious and so talented that they turn a misanthrope cat and mouse game into a politically correct entertaining account. This strong emotional battle is not only something about teacher-student sex, it's also an obsessing blackmail. Without exaggerating it could be deemed "memorable", as revelations abound, tempers flare all the time and every single confidence is shared. Never boring and deep.

Front Row at the Opera

[char treuse · 10/10 · 4 January 2007]

Watching the emotionally intense black comedy, "Notes on a Scandal," you, too, may feel like its main character, Barbara, who reflects in one of her many voice-overs, "The opera has begun and I have a front-row seat." Directed by Richard Eyre ("Iris," "Stage Beauty" and the exceptional TV version of "Suddenly, Last Summer" with Maggie Smith and Natasha Richardson), "Notes" bravely wades into modern-day Grand Guignol as the tension between its two female stars heads inevitably toward a showdown.

Patrick ("Closer") Marber's melodramatic screenplay cleverly makes use of Barbara's voice-overs as she scribbles in her diary and makes jaded, bitter observations about the world around her. Abundant voice-overs usually point toward shortcomings in a drama, but here they provide irony and serve to enhance the dialog.

In her juiciest role since "Mrs Brown," Judi Dench brings an element of sympathy to Barbara, a closeted, self-loathing lesbian school teacher attracted to the new art teacher, Sheba, played by Cate Blanchett. Madly hoping to wrest the heterosexual Sheba from her husband and two children, one of whom has Down Syndrome, Barbara stumbles upon Sheba's sexual dalliance with a 15-year-old student. In a Machiavellian turn, Barbara hopes to manipulate Sheba by maintaining her secret . . . with strings attached. Need I add that all does not go well?

In fact, escalating histrionic fireworks ensue. Blanchett holds her own in this emotional and physical battle royal, capping her incredible year (2006) that also included outstanding performances in "Babel" and "The Good German." As Sheba's husband, Richard, Bill Nighy also comes through with a powerhouse performance. The moody score by Philip Glass is icing on the cake.

At a tidy 92 minutes, "Notes on a Scandal" is highly concentrated and vivid. The recently announced Golden Globe nominations include Dench, Blanchett and Marber, so we can expect Oscar nods as well.

A strong, character-driven take on a genre that too often is excessive and tiresome

[bob the moo · 11 December 2007]

Barbara Covett is a history teacher who lives alone and is comparatively friendless. The one woman she was friendly with has moved on to another school in a better area but she still has her cat and her diary. When young art teacher Sheba Hart starts in the new term, Barbara keeps her distance to feel her out but she finds quite a nice woman with whom she thinks she can start a friendship. However the discovery of a scandalous secret in Sheba's life means that the relationship takes a darker turn.

From a distance you could see this film as yet another entry into the Fatal Attraction / Single White Female genre in the way that it is essentially about a "normal" relationship that turns sour as it becomes steadily more evident that the "normal" person is actually a tad unhinged. However does this mean that we are going through the motions here and that we will end up with a Dench/Blanchett fight like it's some sort of Bafta Special of Celebrity Wrestling? Well thankfully no. The narrative does head this way to a point of course but it remains engaging and grounded, mainly down to the fact that the story is not strictly one of this specific relationship but rather it is the story of Barbara. This is clear from the fact that the only narration or inner thoughts we get to hear are from her and, although it is not told from her perspective, it is clear that she is the subject of the film rather than Sheba (who is Barbara's subject).

The film paints out a convincingly real Barbara and in a way she reminded me a little of the "Lady of Letters" from Alan Bennett's Talking Heads. In her own world and journal she has developed this aloof attitude of one who is lonely but has convinced herself that she is more than happy to be so. But yet she also still has this edge of desperation, of being so much more needy than she will ever recognise. It is a very well written part and it goes without saying that Dench plays it perfectly – delivering in the detail and reigning in any potential for "bunny boiling". The story is well delivered and it is the characters that prevent you really questioning the internal logic too much because it does all convince both within itself but more or less within the wider world as well.

Eyre's direction is good in terms of controlling his cast even if it does feel every inch a BBC TV film that has gotten ahead of itself. Blanchett works well opposite Dench; she knows that the film is not about her character even if her character is key in telling it and her performance is pitched well to reflect this. As another user has already humorously said, Bill Nighy is good as the Bill Nighy character but I was upset that Phil Davis did not get more to do as he is very good at the type of character he played here. Simpson is well cast and makes his character work pretty well considering the demands put on him by the narrative – something about his Northern Irish accent that makes me believe it (!).

Overall then an engaging and well-delivered film. At first glance it is another crazy stalker movie but really it is much more than that as the characters are well written and convincing (even if aspects of the narrative aren't to the same degree) and the strength of the lead performances almost goes without saying as a given.

Great acting, trite story

[Philby-3 · 7/10 · 24 February 2007]

Barbara is a high school teacher, head of the history department in a London Comprehensive which, as she puts it produces "plumbers and shop assistants and no doubt the odd terrorist". She is sharply intelligent but also single, unattractive, unloved and near retirement. The new school year brings in Sheba, youngish, attractive, married mother of two, to teach art. Barbara strikes up an acquaintanceship and discovers that Sheba is carrying on an affair with a 15 year old pupil. Instead of dobbing her in, Barbara uses this knowledge to get closer to Sheba. Then of course the secret gets out.

Put like that it's a pretty trite plot, but Judy Dench, aided by Patrick Marber's acid script, manages to give what might otherwise be a rather pathetic, if mendacious, character some real oomph. We see the earlier part of the story via copious voice-over largely from Barbara's point of view, but then find there's a lot she hasn't told us. It's not that her goal is reprehensible – all she wants really is companionship – it's that she is so ruthless in pursuing it.

As her target Sheba, Cate Blanchette is equally effective. Her real achievement is in portraying Sheba, the beautiful daughter of a famous economist, as rather a week character, irresolute, caught up in her emotions, a perfect foil for Barbara's steely determination. It is not without significance that it's Steven, her schoolboy lover, who initiates the relationship. She can't stop herself.

Bill Nighy, that expert at shifty characters, plays Sheba's older husband straight, and is very effective. Andrew Simpson as Steven is also very good. There is also a gem of a performance from Michael Maloney as the headmaster, an arch bureaucrat and devotee of political correctness. Phil Davis is also very good in a small part as Brian, another one of Sheba's admirers.

I'm afraid I have a complaint about the music. Phillip Glass is justly famous as a modern music composer. He is often billed as the last of the romantics. But here the score is intrusive, noisy and overdone undoing by overstatement the understated acting on the screen. This was a play, not an opera, and the music was just too much.

The familiar shots of London (from Parliament Hill?) which bookend this film have been showing up a lot in British movies lately. Here everything is shrouded in fog. But there is no ambiguity about this story. The ending is apparently different from Zoe Heller's original novel, but hardly comes as a surprise. What is interesting is what a common story student-teacher sex is. Check out the message board postings on this site. And most of it remains undetected.

The Real, As Opposed to the Convenient

[jzappa · 10/10 · 15 January 2007]

This is a story told through the proper subjective medium, film, with such painful, cynical candor for how Barbara has spent a life disabusing herself of any rose-tinted notion of life or people. The price? Absolute, utter loneliness. The dynamic human images we see our narrated by the day-by-day items in the diary she zealously keeps as a sanctuary, and an affirmation. The movie fixes on acts of indiscretion and disloyalty, entailing not just our scathingly wise narrator and her new teaching colleague Sheba, but Sheba's husband, the headmaster, a teacher infatuated with Sheba, and a 15-year-old student. Each believes their reasons are sincere, but are all entrenched in variations of self-deception. As Barbara says, in one of the most tellingly human things I've ever heard in a movie, "It takes courage to recognize the real as opposed to the convenient."

Dench and Blanchett, as Barbara and Sheba, share not only a gift for deep behavioral detail but a skill at withholding or telegraphing charm and beauty, as required. This may be one of the numerous reasons why they're as compelling as they are. It's definitely part of why this is some of their finest work. It's part of the drama's mechanism. Were Sheba not the breed of beauty she is, a naive, impressionable, coddled pixie, then we couldn't appreciate how intensely Barbara wants her. It's not exactly love so much as controlling, envious fixation on Sheba's stunning upper-class ease. And were Barbara not a teakettle of seclusion boiling through decades of disillusionment, we couldn't identify with how distorted the manifestation of that affection becomes.

That's the marvel of the movie: It's about the venomous influence of loneliness, viewed through a tale of two people in love. But unfortunately for both, not with one another. Sheba becomes smitten with a cute but cagey student. Played with what seems like natural hyper-confidence by Andrew Simpson, he sees an occasion in the way she looks at him. She has no clue of how defenseless she truly is. It's not only dishonest and unethical, she tells herself, it's totally ludicrous, but when he cups her face and says, "You're beautiful, Miss," she melts.

Barbara, meanwhile, fosters an obsession in her diary, relating thoughts precariously bordering on fantasy. Barbara's seclusion within the school is total, but Sheba is somebody who hasn't experienced her acidity. Barbara can smother someone with good turns and not be rejected. She helps Sheba win control of her students. "One soon learns that teaching is crowd control. We're a branch of social services." Sheba asks her to Sunday roast, where Barbara describes Sheba's family with characteristically rancorous humor. Dench's delivery of these delectably spiteful lines is an triumph in vocal meticulousness and tone that is its own prize. Even when this apparent ice queen drops minute words of vulnerability like "Is that why she hasn't returned my calls?" there's an extra intensity in how strongly we can all relate to the insecurities of her inner voice.

There are giftedly handled, extraordinarily candid scenes of rage, humiliation and disgrace, and cruel physical and emotional clashes of immense force. The teachers are somewhat caricatured, but that's because they're filtered through Barbara's misanthropic viewpoint. If it's her omniscient voice we're hearing, it's through her omniscient eyes we're seeing what she describes, and it's the figures who allow her access to their humanity who have profundity and delicacy in their depictions. A wholly earnest Dench brings to Barbara that frigid reserve that's somehow one with a despairing need for consolation and affection. Early on, Sheba is basically an alluring figurine, watched from afar. When our voyeuristic chronicler discovers Sheba's business with the student, Sheba grows immense dimension.

We start to see Sheba's own manner of advantaged lonesomeness…or just tedium. "Marriage, kids, it's wonderful," she presumingly explains, "but it doesn't give you meaning." Blanchett brilliantly uses her character's advantages to betray her. The grim lesson she's about to learn from Barbara seems belated, even valuable. People like Sheba, according to Barbara, and I'm sure you'll agree, think they know loneliness, but they know nothing of planning one's whole weekend around a laundry errand, or being so continually untouched that the inadvertent sweep of a stranger's hand ignites years of sexual longing.

What I adore about the film is this discerningly intricate moral kaleidoscope weaved in completely modern domestic terms. It's going on in your neighborhood, not just Islington. There are scandals like this every year, and we dismissively conjecture from what little we gather. The cunning concept here is that we're seeing it through the sieve of Barbara, and whose transgressions transcend contemporary know-it-all assumptions.

Judi Dench as you've never seen her in cautionary tale against selfishness

[lauraeileen894 · 7/10 · 4 February 2007]

For the last decade or two, Judi Dench has been both England and America's go-to girl for playing upper class grand dames ("Shakespeare in Love", "Pride and Prejudice") or prim but plucky little old ladies ("Mrs. Henderson Presents"). It must have been one hell of a delicious change of pace for Dame Judi to do a 180 and play a soul sucking, bitterly lonely teacher in "Notes on a Scandal". For once, her 2007 Academy Award nomination doesn't feel like another obligatory honor, but an honest to God testament to Dench's talent.

With a bombastic combination of careful nuance and sinful relish, Dench portrays Barbara Covett, a wizened teacher at a lower class private school. Barbara is a desperately lonely person who, as protection against the cruel fact that she simply has no social skills, has developed a superior, curmudgeonly attitude towards the world around her. She feverishly records her disdainful thoughts in diaries, which we hear in voice-over narration. Barbara calls her students "proles", "future plumbers and shop assistants" who need discipline more than an education. She also harbors contempt for her co-workers: when one teacher announces that she has "great news", Barbara deadpans, "you're leaving the school?".

One day, Barbara meets the attractive, bohemian new art teacher, Sheba Hart (Cate Blanchett). Barbara initially finds Sheba fey and latently snobbish, but soon she develops a growing admiration for the lovely new teacher, whose mere presence wins everyone over. Sheba's so darn nice, she befriends the unpopular Barbara and even invites her to her house to dinner a few times. Barbara believes Sheba's miserable with her family, which include her older husband Richard (Bill Nighy), sullen teenage daughter Polly, and son David, who has Down's Syndrome (even disability doesn't limit Barbara's cruel mentality, as she privately calls David "a tiresome court jester").

Barbara's pristine opinion of Sheba is tarnished when she discovers that Sheba is having an affair with Steven, a 15-year-old student at the school. Barbara confronts a deeply ashamed Sheba, but promises not to tell anyone... as long as Sheba ends the affair. Sheba is grateful, but the poor dear doesn't realize that Barbara isn't doing this out of the goodness of her heart, but has used this horrible mistake to set a trap. We soon learn that Barbara has had "special friends" like Sheba in the past, and things have a way of turning very, very ugly when her friends refuse to play nice. Alas, Sheba finds out the hard way, and more than one life will be shattered before the movie is through.

I cannot praise Dench highly enough for her portrayal as a human parasite who preys on people she knows won't fight back. You're disgusted by Barbara's vampire-like behavior, but in the back of your mind you realize this is a person driven by a paralyzing desperation for human contact. She dominates the movie, yet Blanchett more than holds her own against Dame Judi. She brings a welcome dimension to Sheba, who could have been just an empty object of desire, but instead makes Sheba both maddening and sympathetic. She does have a rather "poor little rich girl" attitude towards life and is aware of her own good looks (notice the way she absently twirls her flaxen hair). Not to mention that she admits to feeling "entitled" to have an affair with Steven because she feels she's been such a good person, what with giving up her youth to marry and raise a family (Sheba's revelation makes you wonder if Mary Kay Letourneau shared this mentality when she had an affair with 12-year-old Villi Fulaau). But Sheba remains a tragic character, because you really sense she's just a confused pushover who desperately needs a wake up call, and it comes when she finally discovers Barbara's motives. Blanchett, a cool-headed presence up to this point, finally unleashes Sheba's rage and sense of betrayal with the ferocity of a cornered animal. It's stunning, Oscar-caliber work.

The rest of the cast is also good, especially the ever reliable Nighy as the jilted husband. Nighy, who normally excels at playing "devil may care" types, breaks your heart when he discovers his wife's infidelity.

"Notes on a Scandal" is an intelligent suspense piece and is a shocking cautionary tale about the poisonous effects selfishness can create on the lives of others.

Brill, Dark, Witty....and "Marvelously Judi Dench/Cate Blanchett"

[screenwriter-14 · 9/10 · 27 December 2006]

NOTES ON A SCANDAL is a Judi Dench "triumph" of brilliant wit, pain and a satanic passion for a woman out of reach in Cate Blanchett. Her "Judas" to her supposed friend and fellow teacher is an acting performance which will land Ms. Dench right back in "Oscar country". Too bad it is in the same year as Helen Mirren's magnificent "Queen" as Dench gives a show here in NOTES ON A SCANDAL that leaves you quite breathless to the last and final scene and fade out.

Patrick Marber delivers a deliciously wicked, witty and crisply written script in NOTES, and it only enhances his reputation for giving an audience a story well developed and with characters that you can't take your eyes off on the screen. His writing in CLOSER was so brilliant and clever, but in NOTES ON A SCANDAL he hands Judi Dench and Cate Blanchett words that are zingers and with a strong blend of anger, pain and humor. Please, Patrick, gives us another film quickly! The "teacher/student" romance was well developed and the chemistry between the two actors was believable and very sexual, and one could understand the youthful passion delivered by a young man with a strong mind and body. I did at times have to listen carefully to the young actor's lines, but he delivered them like a pro.

In the weeks ahead, I anticipate a "roar from the crowd" for this very dark and witty Judi Dench performance and who knows, she may upset "The Crown" in the end come Oscar time.

Good, but doesn't delve deep enough

[anthonyjlangford · 7/10 · 29 April 2009]

Judi Dench heads up a strong cast as Barbara Covett, a Secondary school teacher seeing out her final year in the job, when a younger attractive art teacher Sheba Hart (Cate Blanchett) arrives and turns her somewhat small world on its head.

Sheba's gaining attention from all quarters but at least its adding some zeal to her otherwise dull bourgeois existence. Unfortunately some of it is coming from fifteen year old Steven Connolly (Andrew Simpson) and she can't or won't say no. Barbara is never far away and makes an unpleasant discovery. She soon realizes that this could be an opportunity, if she is prepared to make it as one. Both women are unstable and their union is destined to be a disastrous one.

Patrick Marber (Closer) wrote the screenplay based upon Zoe Heller's novel. Marber writes exquisitely amusing dialog and Judi Dench gets all the best lines. She dominates every scene she is in. Cate Blanchett is competent too and is always a pleasure to watch, though she has been better.

The real problem lies in the story. While it's meaty enough for a novel, there isn't enough going on for a screenplay. It doesn't go far enough and barely limps out to 90 minutes. We cannot help but feel that we may have been slightly cheated. A sub-plot is missing and more depth from some of the other characters. Bill Nighy, for example, is brilliant when he's around but we don't see him enough. Same goes for headmaster Sandy (Michael Maloney). All has been put to one side so the stars can carry on with the theatrics. He's getting there, but Marber is yet to step out of the theater and embrace film. Closer, in point, belonged on the stage.

This is still a worthwhile film with some standout performances by some of the best actors working today. There's also a brilliant score from the ever remarkable Phillip Glass (The Hours, Koyaanisqatsi). You'll recognize his signature tunes from the first note.

What we have here is good, but it doesn't delve deep enough. We're left feeling a little empty. It's like the main course without the side dishes.

Two great performances, but too little else

[nwsts · 5/10 · 1 August 2007]

Here's the upshot of this movie: Two GREAT performances by the lead actresses, but a poorly written script with mediocre dialogue. A totally impersonal feel due to poor direction and cinematography. The flaws of the two main characters are explored, but since they possess virtually no redemptive traits, we hope that both will burn in hell....and soon The plot line itself is about one sexual predator (a female child moles tor) being preyed upon by another sexual predator (a female homosexual using blackmail). This is seemingly a perfect vehicle for exploring explosive emotional intrigue at the fringe. Unfortunately the promise is squandered by the script, story, direction, etc. In summary, if you want to see some Oscar level acting, watch this movie, otherwise, stay away.

Rarely is a film so sublime!

[wisewebwoman · 10/10 · 5 January 2007]

Every film should aspire to be as satisfying as this one is - on every level, and there are so many layers to it all. Nothing is as it appears and the film unwinds in the form of comments and voice-overs from the many journals of the protagonist.

Judi Dench, yet again, sinks her teeth into the part of Barbara Covett, a cynical and acerbic history teacher putting in time in an inner city school.

Enter Cate Blanchett, playing Sheba Hart, the new art teacher, fragile, naive, innocent and hopeful. Or is she? Barbara quickly ensconces herself into Sheba's life, becoming confidante and friend.

And then the plot thickens and assumes the intensity of a thriller as Sheba's life starts to fall apart, secretly abetted by Barbara. The tension does not let up until the very last frame and the viewer is never quite sure where this ride is going.

Sheba and Barbara are very alike at their cores, there is a fragile 'fatal attraction' theme running through their relationship, shadowed by Sheba's impossible affair with a fifteen year old boy which is in turn shadowed by her Down's Syndrome son who is of an age with her student, and again this is shadowed by her daughter's coming of age love troubles and overall the shadow of her own marriage to a much older man, who left his wife and children for her teenage self. I found all of these themes winding again and again throughout the film. The characters are fully rounded and indeed are also shown happy in the bosoms of their individual families but with a distance portrayed as if they are never quite sure of their places within them - always a distraction and secrets.

Barbara has her shadows too and they start to trickle through and become more vocalized and by others, as the stories unfold.

Enough said without spoilers. Bill Nighy, as Sheba's husband ably enhances the two astonishing performances of the female leads.

Movie making at its finest. This is being shown in two theatres in the same complex where I saw it and both were packed. It is very heartening to see a character driven and challenging movie being so popular.

10 out of 10. Superlative, down to the music by Philip Glass.

minor quibbles aside, this is one of the sharpest tragic-comedies this year, certainly regarding obsession and psychological mind-games

[Quinoa1984 · 9/10 · 5 January 2007]

Rarely have I seen Dame Judi Dench on top of her game as with Notes on a Scandal. She's usually a good show in any film she's in, but here she's perfect for the role of Barbara, who has been a professional teacher in a high school all her life, and is well respected, but can't seem to get enough of her attachments. There's a first one to a woman we won't see during the course of the film (chiefly because she put a retraining order on Barbara), and then enters in Sheba (Cate Blanchett, beautiful as ever, which may be a small part of the point), who becomes a focal point of attention for Barbara. And then when she discovers a terrible secret regarding her new 'friend'- an affair Sheba's having with one of her 15 year old students- there's a subtle form of blackmail that comes into play, and that becomes a further fantasy in her notebooks. Throughout all of this Dench never breaks from making this a totally believable, broken, but very solid woman who's gone through a life of misery only to want to seek happiness on the other side. One might almost feel sorry for her, in the end, if she wasn't such a dingbat. It might be also my favorite Dench performance I've seen to date (albeit I'm not all up on her complete catalog of work). She's not only convincing on the level of the obviousness of her character, vindictive but sweet, sensitive but cunning, and always with that underlying wit that the British have even in the most dire of circumstances, and I couldn't see anyone else playing her after a while.

But it's not just her that makes Notes on a Scandal worthwhile. The screenplay by Patrick Marber, from what must be an equally absorbing and humanistic book, is sharp and intelligent in ways that American filmmakers wish they could make mind-f***er movies like today. There's understatement here and there that undercuts some scenes, like when Sheba has to confess to Barbara after being caught with the boy the first time, a very slight tension each knows on each side. And even when things start to get worse and worse, and the truth comes out in the worst way possible (not just for Sheba, destroying her family which includes her husband played by the great Bill Nighy and her two dysfunctional children, but for Barbara as well), there's still some glimmers of dark comedy in there, which one might think would be impossible considering the dangerous pit-falls that could come with such topical, practically controversial subject matter. My favorite of this is when Sheba finds out her own darkest secret from Barbara, and inexplicably in her old 80s makeup again no less.

Not that I thought the film was without flaws- chiefly that, oddly enough, it wasn't long enough at 90 minutes (structurally it ended up working out, but considering how good the characters made the material out to be, I was surprised how quickly Marber and director Eyre got into the affair material), and Phillip Glass's musical accompaniment isn't quite fit with the rest of the material most of the time (I was wondering when Errol Morris would show up, truth be told). But I overlook these flaws mostly for the sake of how superlative everything else is done. The performances are all uniformly compelling and with equal measures of understandings in neuroses in one another, and the ending particularly leaves a chilling spell not unlike one found in the Cable Guy. It's probably the best "chick-flick" you haven't yet seen this year.

Brilliant acting

[Gordon-11 · 15 July 2007]

This film is about a teacher having sex with a 15 year old schoolboy, with drastic consequences.

The acting in this film is absolutely amazing. Cate Blanchett does very well as a lost and lonely woman, trapped in a less than satisfying marriage and the burden to care for a son with Down Syndrome. Her emotions are heartfelt and real, especially after she finds out the candid intentions of Judi Dench. Judi Dench on the other hand, plays a cunning woman with an unusual interest in Cate Blanchett. Her smile and looks are cunning in pivotal scenes. The scene where Judi Dench reaches out her hand over Cate Blanchett conveys a lot of unsaid undercurrents between the two characters. The plot itself is dramatic and gripping as well. This film should have won more Oscars!

Much ado

[Chris Knipp · 7/10 · 31 December 2006]

Why does this story of pinched desire and mindless indiscretion, for all its color and life, feel glib and superficial? Perhaps it's disadvantaged by being a celebrity project, with two overexposed superstars, Cate Blanchett and Judi Dench, both playing characters who are heavily programmed. I don't personally trust Patrick Marber, who worked on the screenplay adaptation from Zoe Heller's novel. His play-to-film adaptation Closer felt similarly cold and manipulative. The difference here is an even higher level of melodrama. And then it's the main characters: one is repulsive, the other shallow.

Dench plays Barbara, a needy, lonely lesbian teacher whom even this famous, powerful actress couldn't make us sympathize with for a minute were it not for the device of having her be the narrator. Like the main character of Patricia Highsmith's novel, Edith's Diary, Barbara describes events as she would like them to be rather than as they are.

Barbara's new obsession (not the first, we learn) is the pursuit of a relationship with an attractive young woman newly arrived on the scene, a project that becomes momentarily plausible through a chance opportunity at blackmail. Barbara and Sheba (Blanchett) are both teachers at a school where Barbara is an old hand and Sheba a newcomer. Sheba is a pretty, directionless ex-bohemian unwisely taking a stab at teaching art. She's seemingly unaware of how bored she is with her marriage, but that's why she's trying her hand in the classroom. The full extent of her foolishness and desperation comes out when she quite quickly gets involved in a sexual affair with one of her students, a fifteen-year-old Irish boy named Stephen Connolly (Patrick Simpson). As Sheba's enraged husband Richard (Bill Nihy) later points out, this is something everybody is tempted by at some point, but always resists. If we can manage not to see her as criminal, which legally she is, we certainly must see Sheba as criminally stupid. It's hard to say whether the movie's focus on these two women feels more condescending toward us or toward the characters.

There are two lines of action. Stephen pursues Sheba with surprising success. He persuades her to give him special drawing lessons and arouses her sympathy by lying about his family and saying his father beats him and his mother is seriously ill. He turns out to come from a happy, healthy home, such a nice one you wonder why his English is so bad. A few nice words ("You don't realize how beautiful you are, Miss") and forward gestures, and he's there. He and Sheba have hot sessions on the ground by a train track, in a storage room at the school during a school event, and later in what Richard calls her "lair," a studio next to her home that she has admitted is just a place to escape to.

Barbara is delighted to spy the connection at school and immediately realizes this is the opportunity to forge an unbreakable bond with her love object – by promising to say nothing, and then becoming the central person in Sheba's life. This is not so far fetched, since Sheba liked her at first, and of course she has to be nice to Barbara now. Barbara proceeds to imagine a wonderful relationship growing out of this nastiness.

Unfortunately Barbara demands that Sheba come to comfort her on the death of her cat at the precise moment when the family is off to see their son perform for the first time in a school play, and Sheba has to say no. She promises to end the affair with the boy but doesn't, and Barbara catches Stephen talking dirty to Sheba on her mobile phone. Too bad for Sheba. Revenge follows.

Richard screams at Sheba when he finds out, and demands to know why she got into such a thing. Her most heartfelt reply is an emphatic if vapid, "I don't know!" "The opera has begun," Barbara says, and the yelling and emotional excess do suggest arias from some telenovela-style musical drama.

The film is well paced and lively and good-looking. But the acting skills of Blanchett are Dench are largely wasted here. It's only the yelling and running around, which director Eyre would have done well to put a rein on, that linger in the mind when it's all over. Chris Menges makes the photography look attractive, but the ladies become pretty disheveled before the squabbling is over, Sheba is in on her way to jail, Barbara has been forced into early retirement, and we are left wondering what it was all about. Director Eyre (of Iris, in which Dench unquestionably shone, and Stage Beauty, which quickly faded) seems a bit overpowered this time by his luminous cast and inexplicably celebrated adapter. This movie is inevitably watchable, but we shouldn't be fooled into thinking it significant.

Even better than the book

[julianjessop · 9/10 · 5 January 2007]

I saw this at a preview last night. It is a brilliant, absorbing little piece from Zoe Heller's novel about a teacher (Cate Blanchett, looking stunning) who has an affair with a 15 year old pupil and the effect this has on her relationship with a bitter, older teacher seeking selfishly for love (Judy Dench, looking 100). Great performances all round, with special mention to Bill Nighy in the Bill Nighy role. The script (Patrick Marber) is faithful to the book but enjoyable though the book was the film is actually - for a change - even better. Beautifully filmed in North London and Eastbourne (presumably the school scenes) this movie is definitely a must see.

Not so obscure object of desire

[rmax304823 · 6/10 · 11 December 2007]

This wouldn't be much of a movie without the performances of the principals, namely Cate Blanchett and Judi Dench, because the story itself is a little like a soap opera. Dench is a lonely and bitter older woman, starved for love and sex. She teaches at the same school as Blanchett. Blanchett teaches art in the most general sense of the word. She has an older husband, who's fun, a snotty teen daughter and a son with Down's syndrome. She's not exactly starved for anything. Her life is not just busy but a little chaotic. At the same time she's flattered by the attentions of a horny, manipulative student of hers. The problem is that he's only fifteen, but it's a problem that both Blanchett and the boy manage to work through without any great problems.

Dench wants to seduce Blanchett too. Her intentions are far more inclusive and demanding than the kid's. She wants to break up Blanchett's family and have Blanchett move in with her. Dench confides all this to her diary, which, as any politician can tell you, is going to turn out to be a great big mistake. Because Dench learns about the kid and, rebuffed by Blanchett, squeals on her and has her fired. Blanchett is so dumb that she has no idea that Dench is doing all this sub rosa. So the two ladies DO in fact move in together, but Blanchett thinks it's just "friendship", not an "affair," until she finds and reads through Dench's journal in a scene reminiscent of Charlotte Haze's finally discovering Humbert Humbert's diary. This leads to a break up of the nascent "affair." Blanchett goes home to her forgiving husband. Dench continues trying to pick up attractive young women in Hampstead Heath.

This is a woman's fantasy, with Blanchett as the central figure. Everyone desires her and some love her. They fight over her. And she's perfectly INNOCENT -- well, almost. In the end, she is even victimized by the press, a scene in which the entire movie collapses in upon itself. Everything goes hysterical and berserk -- the direction, the actress, the story, the score. Blanchett comes out ahead in the end. She's gotten what she wanted -- love from her family, sex with a young stallion, and she's crushed the Machiavellian Dench.

Blanchett really is a knockout too. Not just because she's conventionally attractive but because she informs her character with such warmth and generosity. She's a Jungian sensation type, hungry for stimulus. And in seeking it she seems almost to be doing those around her a favor, or trying to. She manages, for instance, to convince herself that that guileful teen, the one who calls her up and says filthy things to her, the one who lies about his family's tragedies, just needs some physical reassurance. She's doing him a favor by sleeping with him. It has nothing to do with her or with the fact that, like all fifteen-year-old boys, this kid is a biological dynamo. What a coincidence.

I felt a lot sorrier for Dench, the putative villain of the piece, who also winds up fired for not spilling the beans immediately upon learning that there were beans to be spilled. She's old. And she's not attractive. She has only her cat for company. (And her diary.) No one at the school likes her. Her attempts at being friendly are rather like an iceberg breaking away from the polar cap. She's as selfish as they come, without knowing it. When a man is old and homely, it's tough enough. For an unpleasant woman living alone, with no family or friends, with no job, it can be a disaster because she is truly socially bankrupt. Let her jot down her history of bitchery in that journal. It's the only thing she has.

Well, I ought to mention that this is in no way a courtroom drama. When the affair is uncovered, Blanchett is fired and that's that. There's not much sex in it either. It's all about intrigue.

Notes on Notes On A Scandal - Blackmail can't buy you love

[Rogue-32 · 9/10 · 28 January 2007]

Notes On A Scandal is a nearly-perfect film, a seductive little foray into deliciously dangerous territory, with tons of seething undercurrent to spare.

In one of the most fearless, fierce and feral performances of any recent decade, Dame Judi Dench pulls out all the stops in her portrayal of the not-so-subtly-named Barbara Covett, the history teacher with quite a past of her own: she continues to deludedly search for a 'companion' with whom to share her life without ever comprehending that love is not a commodity to be bought, sold or traded - it must be given, freely. When she sets her sights on the new art teacher (another great performance from Blanchett), Barbara winds up repeating the pattern, to the same disastrous end result.

A simple story, basically. But it's the brilliant way it unfolds that allows the movie to succeed, on many levels.

The film is narrated by Barbara, in the form of her journals, and this sucks us in straight away. We see we're getting an intellectually on-the-ball character here, which is always attractive, and at the onset, we're almost on her side. By the time we see what's really going on in her twisted version of reality, it's too late, we're already involved - sort of like in a bad relationship - and we have no choice but to see the situation through to its bitter end.

The film also works by being dizzyingly over the top in spots. This has been seen as a detriment by some people, but I think they're missing the point. The situation that spirals out of control in the course of the proceedings IS outrageous, and by going for a blatant approach rather than a more sedate, repressed one, the film mirrors the situation brilliantly. And the actors are all playing it for real - this is not camp, it's not satire - which makes the tragic absurdity of the situation resonate all the more.

There's another element at play here, something far more subtle. In the film, Barbara has a cat whom she is abnormally attached to. A little ways in, I started picking up on how Barbara herself is like a cat - a feral cat, seeking another (more domesticated) cat over whom she can exert control. When her cat dies, Barbara is subconsciously trying to replace her with Blanchett's character, her new "pet". There's a lot to support this. Blanchett's name in the film is Sheba. A brand of cat food. There is also a lot of talk about 'stroking', and there is a scene where Barbara mentions feral animals, how they can sense fear. There are also at least 2 scenes between Barbara and Sheba, where Barbara, who is done being cordial, literally snarls at her, clearly reverting to her primal and vicious feral-cat state. And it's no coincidence that both of the females to whom Barbara is attracted (Sheba, and at the end, Sheba's potential replacement) are shown with cream on their upper lips, something that Barbara finds perversely endearing.

This would have been a perfect film if it hadn't been for one bit of sloppiness toward the end; the way in which Sheba's character learns of Barbara's true motivation and true feelings is written really badly. I just couldn't believe that ol' Barb would become so complacent so as to let Sheba find what she finds, which lets the proverbial cat out of the proverbial bag. Other than this, however, Notes On A Scandal is, very much like Barbara Covett herself, quite the piece of work.

notes on a scandal?

[willsgb · 6/10 · 6 June 2008]

first, a confession and some praise. i am not familiar with the vast majority of Judi Dench's television, film and dramatic work, beyond her appearances in the bond films, and although i am aware of her hefty CV and experience, i am not clued up about how much of a Judi Dench performance this is. i can say the same about Cate Blanchett and Bill Nighy - i am fond of Blanchett in the lord of the rings films, and Nighy's work as Viktor in underworld, Davy Jones in the pirates of the Caribbean films and with Simon Pegg and co in Shaun of the dead and hot fuzz, but they are not familiar to me, just as the style of film, a very modern, British drama often seen on British television these days, is again not one i'm well acquainted with, a brooding, topical, moody kind of drama, evolved from shows like the bill and casualty and period dramas, that i've only encountered on occasion.

all of that is preconception that can be discarded when weighed against the strength of the performances put in; there are a lot of raised voices, serious moody introspection, a wide range of emotions and reactions and a sense of realism and plausibility lent to the situations of comfortable home life, bitter hermit life, public school in the staffroom, classroom and playground, all strung together expertly by a waspish and somewhat insightful narrative delivered by the desperate and manipulative Barbara. it's a credit to them all that Dench can portray so convincingly a lonely, isolated, regretful and tragically vicious old woman trying to forge some sort of warmth out of her calculating web of secrets, Blanchett can portray a liberal, beautiful but weak and easily tempted young teacher, Nighy a happy, logical optimist husband who goes to astonished and dismayed pieces when his wife's societally unacceptable crime comes to light and even Simpson gives a good performance as the headstrong and somewhat overconfident, animal boy who gets some Sheba.

this brings me to the flaws, which are subjectively observed ones pertaining to the plot / message balance but which i think affect the film detrimentally. first of all, Steven is predatory and Sheba is the weak and passionately seduced maiden in their relationship which is as such to offer debate about the nature of paedophilia and how it isn't necessarily as clear cut as the law or media insist it is in every case, but the ease with which she believes his smugly delivered woe-is-me story uncovers her flaws far too readily and threaten to detract from that debate; Barbara's knowledge would also suggest a far more cleverly manipulative and devastating problem for Sheba, but the focus is really on Barbara's own weakness, and as such she pines for attention when her cat dies and when she doesn't get it, clumsily and riskily deals the blow to a fellow teacher interested in Sheba himself. this brings the media and her head teacher down on her hard.

when she takes Sheba in, Sheba finds a page of her insidious and lonely diary in the bin? you think such a manipulative woman would keep such damaging material more safely concealed, or just destroyed. all of this puts more focus on Barbara's weakness. the film ends with a status quo that is revealed shortly after it begins, which is even more contrived as Barbara has suffered an embarrassing and violently delivered rejection to compound her incompatibility with people, and the school has suffered a second underage teacher relationship scandal, both of which would be reasonably expected to give more lasting damage.

a better plot for me would have been a more genuinely vulnerable boy and a less easily manipulated Sheba screwing, followed by a less vulnerable Barbara finding out, and then a tense friendship / power struggle between Barbara and Sheba which tests the growing need of the vulnerable boy she's seduced, the acceptance of her family and her own ability to hide the affair and cope with her own growing shame and guilt, and the damnation of her school and the law and media when it inevitably finally comes out, Barbara's manipulation of Sheba exhausted leading to her cruel humiliation, that could backfire with the revelation that she's an accomplice etc. that's just my suggestion; i'm simply angling for something more subtle and less contrived then that which we got. British drama in my experience is less ambiguous and more direct, as it is in this film. at least it's not dumbed down, albeit somewhat contrived.

it's still a good film. it's acted brilliantly and engagingly, Blanchett, Dench and Nighy convincing the viewer that they're Sheba, Barbara and Richard, along with everyone else presenting great characterisation. the cinematography and score and production are superb and it's an interesting project. the plot and debate within the film are flawed and presented in a slightly clumsy and contrived way in my honest opinion, but it's still a worthy effort, and certainly worth seeing.

The Brits and an Aussie outdo US with "Notes on a Scandal"

[EPDirector · 9/10 · 30 December 2006]

Without a doubt this year's Academy Awards will be a show to watch. You may want to turn the spot lights to the "BEST ACTRESS IN LEADING ROLE" nomination, because if you saw "The Queen" and loved Helen Mirren, you ain't seen nothing' yet. Go watch "Notes on a Scandal" with Dame Judi Dench at helm, and make sure to bring your casket with you, because you may die of watching a movie that good.

Years ago I went to see a play in a theater. At some point in the show, the grandmother character had to sweep the floor and when she was done, she looked around to make sure nobody was looking and threw the dirt under the carpet. Everyone in the audience laughed. Later I learned that in theater "language" it also may mean that there are hidden secrets in that family.

The director Richard Eyre,who is known mostly for his theater/Broadway work, seems to build this amazing film based on that little theater shtick, and fills the film with the darkness under the carpet, puts us right there and makes us face that dirt. The characters of the young teacher played by Cate Blanchett and older teacher played by M. Judi Dench are impeccable and you can't take your eyes off them. I, personally, think that Dench's performance is one of the finest I have ever seen.

I wouldn't want to spoil the movie for you and give out details, however if you are looking for watching a powerful drama that will shock and thrill and move you with its message, execution and the story, please read no further. Stand up, get dressed and go to see "Notes on a Scandal" right now.

9/10

Too short and contrived to really make the list

[n-mo · 6/10 · 30 March 2008]

"Notes on a Scandal" seeks to transform what was apparently a singular epistolary journal-novel (which I have not read) into a multidimensional theatrical masterpiece. And well-crafted indeed is this little psycho-sexual thriller. Regrettably, by the end, digesting the substance is akin to the sensation biting into a long, juicy red steak, only to discover that a couple of millimeters down lies an inedible and unsatisfying web of sinewy cartilage and bone.

Judi Dench and Cate Blanchett are indeed fabulous, although it is hard to imagine either of them being anything less. In spite of their loathsome behaviour--Dench's subversive lesbian seductions and Blanchett's pædophilia--they manage to inject enough humour and charm into their roles to become multifaceted and complex characters. Blanchett's could easily have been nothing more than a whiny, malcontented upper-middle-class shrew, but her naïve, self-conscious flightiness and aesthetic sense are shown to be but manifestations of a longing for true, substantive beauty--and it's easy to identify with her husband, her young lover and her colleague in being enamored of her. (Too easy, actually, given the rather graphic depictions of her affair with Irish lad Steven Connolly).

But it is Judi Dench's character who really stands out. "Notes on a Scandal" attracted a bit of controversy from those who felt its depiction of "repressed lesbianism" wasn't "progressive" enough for the "Gay is Good" times of "Brokeback Mountain." But while arguably a large part of the psychological twist of the film does, indeed, play off of the audience's prejudice against homoeroticism as inherently perverse (not, I confess, a prejudice that offends myself), I would not used "repressed" to describe Dench's character; "closeted" would be more accurate. She is perfectly self-aware of her desires, and she does not seem at all troubled at the inherent conflict between indulging them and nurturing her steadfastly conservative worldview. She seems to fervently believe in the latter. Her character is truly enigmatic, and captivating: it is quite easy to see how Blanchett's could have been so drawn in to her world and missed--or willfully denied--the signs of where this road was really headed.

Regrettably, however, once the film has had enough of exploring these two characters, it abruptly cuts itself off with a climax that turns on a rather incredulous and sloppy premise completely contradictory to Dench's prior development. If Blanchett and Dench really had been fleshed out to the max--which I'm not exactly sure of--why not spend a bit more time exploring Connelly, his family, Blanchett's husband, perhaps? But granting this one major misstep, the ending that follows is "logical," so to say, though hardly satisfactory. We were given the impression that the film set itself up for a deeper or more psychological reading and we are sorely disappointed. "Notes on a Scandal" is a good non-date thriller for those who will not be mind-warped by rather intense depictions of cradle-robbing, but it cannot make the list of "Great Cinema."

The dumb and the damned

[gyges03 · 5/10 · 20 January 2007]

Crisp dialogue and virtuoso performances make this film enjoyable but it leaves one with a sort of cinematic indigestion. Perhaps it is the atmosphere of cynical mean-spiritedness that ruins so much contemporary British art -as though truth were nasty, a bitter medicine that had to be taken for one's own good. While Judi Dench has a romp with the part of the repressed, evil Barbara Covett. Cate Blanchett's Sheba Hart is so underwritten that her character doesn't stand a chance. When the story starts to liven up every character morphs into an embarrassing pantomime stereotype. The Philip Glass score sounds as if it had been waiting for years in his deep freeze to be used, it is too loud and has nothing to do with the film. Too bad, there is a lot of great talent involved here and ultimately it all seems wasted.