NOTES ON A SCANDAL

Reviewed by Harvey S. Karten
Fox Searchlight Pictures
Grade: B+
Directed by: Richard Eyre
Written By: Patrick Marber, novel by Zoe Heller
Cast: Alice Bird, Cate Blanchett, Judi Dench, Tameka Empson,
Emma Kennedy, Max Lewis, Jeff Lipman, Bill Nighy, Joanna
Scanlan, Philip Scott, Andrew Simpson, Juno Temple
Screened at: Broadway, NYC, 11/14/06
Opens: December 22, 2006

"Adolescents are feral," notes Barbara Covett (Judi Dench),
both the narrator and principal subject of Richard Eyre's "Notes
on a Scandal." The film, adapted by Patrick Marber from a 2003
novel, "What Was She Thinking? Notes on a Scandal," by Zoe
Heller, does not try to downplay Barbara's philosophy of the
teen, nor any of the again high-school teacher's other sardonic
views of the section of British society that she inhabits. She's
the sort who, given this world-view, would not be particularly
loved and, in fact, she admits that the students in the school
may loath her, but they respect her.

"Notes on a Scandal," though, is not about the school system,
wretched though it may be in Barbara's eyes. (At the beginning
of a new term, she hands a one-page reports to the headmaster
calling the youths below average and the school not quite a
catastrophe, while she tells us in the audience that the youths
approaching the building on the first day will later become
assistant plumbers and shopkeepers.) The story is about
Barbara Covett, a lonely woman with an obsessive need for
closeness with others, an intimacy she cannot find except by
ingratiating herself with younger women. She forms a bond
that, she believes, will not be broken–simply because she
makes sure to know a secret about each that would make the
younger women most reluctant to break off the neurotic
friendship.

In the tale, an art teacher new to an English secondary school,
Sheba Hart (Cate Blanchett), is unsure about how to discipline
her rowdy charges. When Barbara restores order to the class,
the two begin a relationship, Barbara accepting an invitation to
Sheba's home for lasagna (a dish for which Barbara
characteristically has contempt) There she meets Sheba's much
older husband, Richard Hart (Bill Nighy) and the couple's two
children. Unbeknownst to the family, Barbara had secretly
observed Sheba in a compromising sexual position with a
fifteen-year-old student, Steven Connelly (Andrew Simpson),
Barbara expresses her anger at the indiscretion while assuring
the younger woman that no-one will be the wiser.

If you're around long enough, you get to meet all sorts of
neurotic people, men and women who largely out of loneliness
exploit vulnerabilities in others, assuring them–in return for an
emotionally disordered friendship–that they will not report the
others' transgressions. This is the sort of bond that puts the
weaker of the two in debt to the exploiter, a debt which can be
called in at an inopportune time. When Barbara experiences a
traumatic event in her life and Sheba is not "there by her,"
melodramatics take hold, putting the yarn over the top like grand
opera.

While the story is an intriguing one, what really rivets the
attention of both its audience and guilds like the Academy which
will be dispensing awards is Judi Dench's intense performance,
one who works beautifully because she is paired, for the first
time, with Cate Blanchett–another accomplished actress. The
music of Philip Glass gives the picture a soundtrack to die for--
though it's difficult to differentiate between a Philip Glass score
in this movie and those that he composed for such others as
Peter Weir's "The Truman Show," Steven Baldry's "The Hours,"
and Neil Burger's "The Illusionist." Two stellar performances
evoked by director Eyre make "Notes on a Scandal" a must-see
during this Christmas season.

Rated R. 122 minutes 2006 by Harvey Karten
harveycritic@cs.com Member: NY Film Critics Online