Directed by: Richard Eyre
Premise: Barbara, an old school history instructor
(Judi Dench) becomes fast friends with Sheba, a free spirited art teacher (Cate
Blanchett). When Sheba begins an affair with a fifteen-year-old student (Andrew
Simpson), Barbara takes the opportunity to insert herself into Sheba’s life,
blackmailing her and manipulating Sheba into abandoning her family.
What Works: Notes on a Scandal is a
Hitchcockian thriller that demonstrates a psychological complexity above and
beyond other films of its kind. Judi Dench has a complicated role that requires
her to take a fundamentally unlikable character and make her sympathetic.
Patrick Marber’s screenplay and Dench’s performance use wit, humor, and
deviousness but also empathy to create one of the great antiheroes in recent
film, on par with Al Pacino in Scarface and Ian McKellen in Richard
III. Rather than just an obsessive maniac, Notes a Scandal makes
Barbara very empathetic through her love of her cats and the character achieves
a credible sense of sympathy when her pet dies. Blanchett’s role as the
teacher who has a sexual relationship with a student is very well executed and
Blanchett brings a naiveté to the role that makes the seduction understandable
in context but does not excuse her actions. Unlike some other stories of this
kind, Sheba is not a femme fatale or a monstrous predator, but a more
complicated human being who has made poor choices. Notes on a Scandal breaks away from similar films by making Sheba’s husband (Bill Nighy) more
than the foolish, unappreciative, or abusive husband that forces the wife into
someone else’s arms, as is usual in these kinds of stories. Instead, the film
makes him a likeable and sympathetic figure who becomes a victim of Sheba’s
actions. Notes on a Scandal is able to unify itself in the intertwined
lives of Sheba and Barbara, as they are shown as women who are lonely and
dissatisfied with their lives and how their craving for a connection with
another human being is twisted into predatory behavior.
What Doesn’t: The seduction of Sheba is the one
weakness of the film. It happens very quickly and the film skims over much of
what happens between them before the sexual relationship.
Bottom Line: Notes on a Scandal is a successful thriller and psychological drama that makes some frightening and penetrating discoveries into the extent to which people will go to relive their loneliness.