Click Here For Our Interview with Cate Blanchett
Click Here For Our Interview with Bill Nighy

Notes on a Scandal

Review By: Benjamin Lee
BenjaminLee@TheCinemaSource.com

In December, after the trials we have all gone through in the Summer, we get rewarded by a sort of ‘anti-blockbuster’ season. Instead of big-budget action scenes, we get Oscar-worthy acting showdowns. The money that would have been thrown at CG is instead used on the best writers, actors and directors around. The result isn’t always a success, but it’s heart is usually in the right place.

Notes on a Scandal is a perfect example of a December movie.

It follows the life of Barbara (Judi Dench), a lonely teacher whose diaries provide the voiceover for the duration of the film. We follow her isolated day-to-day existence as she writes about her intense loneliness and also about how much she despises many of those around her. All of this changes however when Sheba (Cate Blanchett) arrives in her life.

A young, attractive new art teacher, she catches Barbara’s eye and the two become friends. Barbara is excited by this new friendship and becomes more and more attached to the free-spirited Sheba. Sheba starts to share her secrets with Barbara, who is always a dedicated listener. But when Barbara catches Sheba having sex with one of her 15-year-old students, their friendship takes a shocking turn. Sheba’s new vulnerability becomes a vicious weapon for Barbara.

For those who may look at Notes on a Scandal and think, Dench, Blanchett, cosy English school setting - this will be a nice Sunday afternoon drama, they’ll be in for a nasty shock. Beneath the surface, Notes is a brutal film, one that’s unusually unflinching in its brutality. This is of course anchored by Judi Dench, who’s anti-hero provides the film’s focus. Her views on life are pessimistic and malicious and sometimes incredibly funny.

For those who attack films that utilize voiceovers, Notes is a perfect example of how much richer a character can be once we learn their ulterior motives. To the outside world, Dench seems like that teacher we always used to loathe. The strict battleaxe who lives alone with her cat. But of course nothing is as it seems and in reality she’s a time bomb of repressed sexuality and untapped aggression.

It’s a role we’ve never really seen Dench in before and it’s no great surprise, given her track record, that she’s already an Oscar favorite for the umpteenth time. She gives a performance of terrifying ferocity, her words dripping with hatred and her arch stares saying more than a million words could. Watching her commandeer the film with a power most actresses would kill to have, it’s hypnotic and ultimately chilling.

She’s one of those wonderful characters that we hate but we can’t stop watching. It’s also never as simple as whether we truly love or hate her. Her loneliness and desperate need to love and be loved is sad, but whether she’s capable of true love, or whether ...