Opposite Dench, Blanchett is similarly someone whom we cannot totally identify with. Usually in thrillers, her character would be the one that we would sympathize with as her life is gradually brought down around her. But her unforgivable affair with a teenager makes her a tough character to understand. What’s clever and devious about the film is that the actor who plays her young lover actually does look like he’s 15, whereas usually in Hollywood movies, school kids are played by 28-year-old fathers of three. This helps to extract any possible glamour from the situation and makes it as morally corrupt as it would be in reality. A number of sex scenes between the two also leave a decidedly bitter taste in the mouth.

But it’s a testament to the sterling work delivered by Cate Blanchett that we still feel somewhat sympathetic toward her. She’s a woman who finds herself in a marriage with two kids, one of whom has a learning disability which Dench mocks in one of the film’s cruelest moments, and an older husband who doesn’t sweep her off her feet anymore. She yearns for her younger years and mistakenly confides in her new friend. She’s also started a tough job at a school where the kids are as mean-spirited and vicious as kids in reality are. This is another one of the film’s strengths. This isn’t a Hollywoodized school where the kids are inspired by their teachers. This is the school where kids bully and antagonize them.

It would have to have been a truly horrible script to mess up the enviable screen combination of acting heavyweights Judi Dench and Cate Blanchett. It’s a relief therefore that the script comes from Patrick Marber, the guy who brought us the nasty relationship drama Closer. Notes on a Scandal is every bit as bitter and twisted, yet includes a certain sympathy for the characters which is something Closer never managed to achieve. Some are labeling the film misogynist, but to be honest it’s more misanthropic than anything.

As the film progresses, there are moments when it does conform to thriller formula and some scenes are a little melodramatic. This isn’t helped by the film’s score, by Phillip Glass. It works at times by giving seemingly standard scenes an ominous quality but further on it’s so over-the-top and intrusive that it takes you out of the movie. The film’s climax is as unforgiving as you’d expect but the final scene is hopelessly generic. It’s the kind of scene we’ve seen at the end of a hundred other psychological thrillers.

Don’t be fooled by your expectations, Notes on a Scandal is one of the nastiest thrillers of the year. It’s anchored by two electrifying performances, Judi Dench in particular ...