Highly Overrated But Still Good

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

Blistering performances.

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.

Notes on a Scandal is a film on what I would like to call the modern day "Fatal Attraction." Both movies relate to themes regarding sex and romance with dire consequences, although the effects are not as large in this film. This is a thinking thriller and each character in the film is multi-layered. In other words, the story at the beginning is not the story at the end, as the plot is always twisting and turning in a new direction. This is a fine thriller with dark themes and to be quite frank, a nail-biting one.Richard Eyre's film is about a cynical history teacher named Barbara Covett who lives in a lonely world. A new art teacher named Sheba Hart is hired and Barbara decides to take her under her wings. But when Barbara discovers a scandalous affair involving one of the students, Barbara uses this opportunity to reach new heights.The acting is phenomenal. Judi Dench seems to do well in the roles as the ladies you don't want to cross. She as Barbara was excellent, even if her character is mirthless. Cate Blanchett as Sheba is likewise fantastic as the much younger Sheba. Although she did something immoral, you still feel sympathy for her. Bill Nighy has a couple great scenes as Sheba's husband. However, the kid who played Sheba's lover was quite annoying.Overall, Notes on a Scandal is a excellent, passionate thriller about obsessions and control. It is about how one incident can lead to a plethora of incidents and some beyond control. It is interesting to see where such dark passion can lead you. This is a top-notch, nail-biting thriller that has two perfect performances from Dench and Blanchett. There haven't been many quality romance thrillers these days, but this is one to watch. I rate this film 9/10.

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.

I'm a little surprised that two actresses of the stature of Judy Dench and Cate Blanchett accepted these roles.Blanchett's Sheba is not well-drawn; why she gets sexually involved with a manipulative 15-year-old punk -- other than because she's enervated by her (quite attractive) Down Syndrome son -- isn't made clear. She's snagged the creative job she'd wanted to get her out of the house, and a husband who cares. Guess he doesn't compliment her enough -- awwwww! In contrast, the cameraman is smitten with Sheba, providing wispy perspectives on her bottle-blonde hair and willowy frame. (OK, we get that she's a looker!)Dench was courageous (or misguided) in taking the role of an exceptionally unlikeable lesbian as book-smart as she is socially maladaptive; she's made to look ugly in both her behavior and countless closeups. There is little in this film to make us care about someone who weeps, perhaps for the first time in her life, for a deceased cat.The plot here seems derivative of America's Mary Kay Letourneau saga -- Sheba, too, gets involved with an artistic kid who's mature beyond his years. And by the end, Dench's character is channeling Catherine Deneuve in "The Hunger" -- a phoenix-like older woman pursuing youthful prey.The sum of this film is less than its parts but it managed to keep my interest until the end.