Absolutely Fantastic

It is not deep, but it is fun to watch. It does have a bit more of an edge to it than other similar films.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

In Notes on a Scandal, Judi Dench plays Barbara Covett, a spinster history teacher at a British public school, who narrates the story with tart, dolorous wit. A self-described "battle-axe", she is so ensconced by her own loneliness, so embittered by her inability to achieve intimacy with another human, that she has turned inwardly toxic. It doesn't help matters that she's a deeply closeted lesbian.Barbara's newest obsession is the school's new art teacher Sheba Hart (Blanchett), whose wealth and magnificence are a draught of nectar to her own drab existence. Sheba excites Barbara's silent fascination and derision by wafting sexily about the place with her liberal-patrician attitude, her hippy-dippy idealism, and her remarkable beauty. Barbara, who keeps a copious diary of her thoughts and feelings, becomes increasingly delusional about Sheba, concocting a fantasy life for the two of them, imagining her to finally be "the one". Never mind that Sheba is married with two kids - as far as Barbara is concerned, she'd be better off with Barbara. When she discovers Sheba's sensational love affair with one of her students, it's an opportunity Barbara seizes with relish, as we see her moral outrage turn to narcissistic manipulation as she tries to conceal their secret. Notes on a Scandal is about something deeply unlovely in human nature rarely explored by artists: the explosive combination of desire and social envy. The brilliance of the film's concept is matched by a powerful screenplay that proves to be a screen writing master-class from Patrick Marber who makes the subtleties obvious and sets up the story's twists and turns with unmistakable confidence. Director Richard Eyre, with unshowy authority, instills a mildly suspenseful quality to the movie, while imbuing it with enough restraint, pacing the proceedings with an eye for detail. The restraint successfully allows for several moments in which the characters erupt to be that much more jolting.The movie's driving force however is Dame Judi Dench, who is an absolute powerhouse as the repressed, predatory lesbian. We know fully well that Barbara is a kind of monster, but from the moment she cynically sizes up the year's new crop of students - "Here come the local pubescent proles - the future plumbers and shop assistants, and perhaps there's the odd terrorist, too" - she has us. And in Dench's hands, Barbara never lets us go; the acerbic wit never fails. But her biting remarks are always tempered by the sense of her bitter sadness, which in turn is tempered by her moments of uncanny perception. It's a brilliant role and a brilliant performance - witty, hateful and heartbreaking all at once. But it doesn't exist in a vacuum; Cate Blanchett, is every bit Dench's equal, showing great range in moments that demand release of vulnerability and pent-up passion, delivering a harrowing performance as the unwitting target in a tragically fraught relationship. Together, they are an absolute delight! Bill Nighy as Sheba's cuckolded husband displays great range in a relatively small part.Notes on a Scandal is a quintessential tale of twisted love, of festering secrets and emotional self-harm. Something so horrible and abject shouldn't be so compulsively watchable, and yet it is. Engrossing, bewildering, searing and shattering, this is a film that reverberates on every level.

Intriguing, engrossing drama.Barbara (played by Judi Dench) is a history teacher at a high school. Old, old-fashioned, curmudgeonly, alone...and lonely. However, a new, young art teacher, Sheba (played by Cate Blanchett), joins the staff and they become friends. Barbara then stumbles upon the fact that Sheba is having an affair with a 15-year old student. Now, what to do with this information...?A great, tense tale of manipulation and obsession. Good twists, none of which are gratuitous. The villains are not always obvious, and neither are the heroes...Great work by Judi Dench and Cate Blanchett in the main roles. Dench got a Best Leading Actress Oscar nomination for her performance and Blanchett a Best Supporting Actress nomination (though I would view them both being in leading roles). On the negative side - the ending feels a bit subdued after the great build-up. The ending wasn't bad and does close off the story adequately, but could have been much better. I was expecting something more gritty and possibly even shocking after the tension created in the rest of the movie.

Perhaps you can guess from the name of the film that it tells the story of a scandal and hidden secrets. The highlight of the movie is the impressive acting skills of the two heroes, Kate Blanchett (Sheba) and Judith Olivia (Barbara). This film was nominated for an Oscar and a Golden Globe in 2006.Barbara and Sheba are colleagues in a public high school. Sheba is a new art teacher, who is elegant and attractive for the students. Barbara is the opposite. She is serious and very tough. The students are very afraid of her. You can smell from the plot that Sheba is Barbara's prey. They become closer after Sheba's scandal is revealed. Actually Barbara exposes Sheba's relationship with her student, a 16 years old boy. She tricks Sheba into trusting her. She wants to own Sheba to fill her lonely life.Sheba finds Barbara's secret and sick behavior in her diary. She realizes she has been tricked and controlled by Barbara. The story seems to have ended, but Barbara will not stop her seeking. She starts to find her next prey.Sometimes the complicated world is like a weird story. You never know what is hidden under the peace.

We have become so accustomed to seeing Judi Dench in likable parts (PHILOMENA, MRS. BROWN), it's nice to see her playing a thoroughly unsavory person in her best role as a villain since MACBETH on television in the mid-Seventies. She plays an experienced teacher at an Islington school who befriends married art teacher Sheba (Cate Blanchett) and ostensibly tries to help Sheba through difficult times, as the younger woman embarks on an affair with student Steven (Tom Georgeson). However it transpires that Barbara's motives are very different, as she turns out to be an obsessive, concerned solely with herself and blaming others if they should reject her. Her narcissism is revealed in two ways - through her incessant writing down of her thoughts in diaries, and in her attempts to woo the viewers' favor through voice-over narration. Neither strategy actually succeeds, but Barbara still manages to emerge from her friendship with Sheba unscathed, which is more than can be said for Sheba herself, who has to try and pick up the pieces of her marriage to Richard (Bill Nighy) and re-establish her relationship with daughter Polly (Juno Temple). Shot in drab colors by director Richard Eyre, NOTES ON A SCANDAL shows how a fundamentally lonely person tries her best to compensate for a drab lifestyle, yet only succeeds in destroying others. We would like to feel sympathetic towards her - it is Dench, after all - but she is so vindictive in her attitudes that she disqualifies herself immediately. Dench is particularly good at registering anger through a single expression - a pursing of the lips, a flash of the eyes. Patrick Marber's screenplay gets a little intense sometimes, with over-intrusive music by Philip Glass, but the film remains riveting viewing throughout its comparatively short running-time.