Notes on a Scandal
With it all the talk of teachers having sex with their students in the media the last couple of years you had to expect someone to make a movie about it. Personally I thought it would have been a lowbrow little thriller a la Wild Things. I never expected to see one that I actually thought was a good film and certainly not one that was Academy Award worthy.
Barbara Covett (Judi Dench) is a bitter old teacher who looks at her students more as cattle to be herded through rather than people seeking enlightenment. As somewhat of a relic she is mainly just tolerated by the rest of the faculty during the day and at night she sits alone writing in a diary with her cat. When the lovely Sheba Hart (Kate Blanchett) begins teaching art at the school Barbara looks down on her easy going attitude at first, but soon becomes as charmed by her as everyone else. Before long she’s competing for Sheba’s attention with other staff members and even Sheba’s own family. One evening Barbara catches Sheba have sex with a student, but promises that since they are such good friends and it would benefit no one by telling, Barbara agrees to keep this secret. Unfortunately, it gives her all the leverage she need to stay entrenched in Sheba’s life.
This is just a tremendous job by two incredible actresses, Judi Dench in particular. I swear if that woman doesn’t completely lure you in and then creep the hell out of you, I don’t know what will. She fully inhabits the dour old school teacher who has nothing in her life other than her cat and her job is so pointless that her friendship with Sheba not only gives her companionship but purpose as well. Kate Blanchett starts off the film as a bourgeois free spirit whose place in life allows her the luxury to do as she pleases. She only takes up teaching because she can and once it becomes a little difficult she plans on quitting. However once her secret or more accurately Barbara knowing her secret becomes too much for her to bare she struggles to do whatever she can to get herself and her life under control. It’s just a pair of top notch performance from a couple of great actresses. As a side note, I’m always happy to see Bill Nighy show up in anything. He has yet to let me down.
What works for this film is the fact that instead of going the easy route and making this film all about an inappropriate relationship between a teacher and her student they use that as a catalyst for a far more interesting character study. These two women could have been bland clichés of the ornery old school marm and the new-to-town sexpot. By making this story more layered it gives these two great actresses a chance to really stretch their legs. Judi Dench has gotten a lot of Oscar nominations in the past decade and sometimes as in the case of Mrs. Henderson Presents they aren’t necessarily worth it, but here she earned it.
I have to admit that Notes on a Scandal caught me by surprise. I was expecting to be entertained, but I ended up enjoying this film more than I thought I would. Richard Eyre does a fine job directing here, but the credit really goes to Blanchett and Dench, they carry this film on their shoulders. There aren’t that many great roles out there, especially for women, so to anyone who considers themselves a fan of film I’d suggest you check this one out.
The Grade
- Story: A
- Acting: A
- Visuals: B
- Originality: B
- Enjoyability: B+
- Overall: B+
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