Review

Review Date: 7-January-07
Spoiler Rating: Medium
Juju Judgment: Juicy

Notes on a Scandal (2006)

The name of screenwriter Patrick Marber became known to me amid the hoo-ha surrounding "Closer" in 2004. I avoided that movie like the plague because its sole topic appeared to be people behaving abominably and treating each other like crap. Who wants to watch that, regardless of how beautiful the people might be? So when I saw Marber's name in the opening credits of "Notes on a Scandal" (which he adapted from a novel), I braced myself for a possible downer. And sure enough, the film teems with nastiness. It concerns a spinster schoolteacher aptly named Barbara Covett (Judi Dench) who attempts to possess a beautiful colleague to allay her petrifying loneliness. The object of her rabid affection, Sheba Hart (Cate Blanchett), is an artsy-fartsy, married mother of two who hands Barbara manipulative leverage by having an affair with an underage student (Andrew Simpson). The movie paints a picture of Sheba's conflicted emotions while a voice-over relays passages from Barbara's diary, to which she confides every nuance of her twisted little life. It's all quite sordid and despicable, though completely plausible, and it would be a thick-skinned viewer indeed who didn't feel some need to squirm.

But what a theatergoer might not want to witness, an actor might justly want to play. The dual leads in "Notes on a Scandal" are likely what thespians dream about: rich, layered characters who hover around the rim of mania but don't tip over the top. There's an undeniable pleasure in watching Dench and Blanchett sink their teeth into these roles, working off each other and fully communicating the women's selfish hungers and (somewhat) softening weaknesses. Director Richard Eyre presents them in a blunt light with a punchy soundtrack as if their story has the right to command attention. And I guess it does. The filmmakers' confidence pays off; "Notes on a Scandal" is an impressive, if depressive, experience.

Copyright © 2007 The Jujube (M. I. Kim). All rights reserved.