Notes on a Scandal

NOTES ON A SCANDAL
FOX
RELEASED 3 February 2007
When the flagrant and cheery Sheba Hart (Cate Blanchett) joins St. George’s school as the new art teacher, everybody sees her as a breath of fresh air. History teacher Barbara Covett (Judi Dench) is the type who seems to have been at the school before anyone can remember and rules with a firm hand, ignoring modern teaching methods. She takes a shine to young Sheba and is soon invited round for dinner where she finds a young family and an older husband (Bill Nighy). Sheba and Barbara become close workmates and it isn’t long before Sheba confides a terrible secret. However, Sheba has no idea as to what her new friend is capable of. Before long everybody’s lives are being irreversibly turned upside down.
Based on Zoe Heller’s award-winning novel, ‘Notes on a Scandal’ is a modern-day ‘Psycho’, complete with a wonderfully cold and calculating performance from Dame Judi Dench, another faultless Cate Blanchett masterclass, Bill Nighy’s best straight performance for some time, a crackling script from Patrick ‘Closer’ Marber, and a thrilling score from ‘The Hours’ composer Phillip Glass. There’s little doubt that you’ll enjoy this movie, it has quality stamped all over it. Containing some of the finest acting of the year (reflected in Dench’s recent Oscar nomination – go Judi!), the plot never quite reveals it’s destination, keeping you guessing til the end. Events do feel a little contrived at times (a minor quibble), but director Richard Eyre (‘Iris’, also starring Dench) really knows how to use his actors, and this is a lean and sharp movie. It’s a classic psychologically-unhinged performance from Dench that belongs up there with Anthony Perkins’ Norman Bates and Anthony Hopkins’ Hannibal Lecter.
‘Notes on a Scandal’ is one of the best films of 2007. A ‘scandalously’ great British movie.
FOUR OUT OF FIVE