...an unfolding of rage, betrayal, discovery, and resolution
Judi Dench and Cate Blanchett can fill a theater. They are bringing in the art
house crowds with “Notes on a Scandal,” proving again that movie lovers often
love just watching two great actors deal with a challenge. They are encouraged
to flourish here by a spare script that requires them to do most of their work
with expressions and actions. Two of the best are handed terrific writing,
photography, and direction. This is a good one on all counts, no mistake about
that. But that doesn’t make it a particularly pleasant experience.
With her
first words, Barbara Covett (Judi Dench) sets up her confidential chat with the
audience. “Who do I trust with my secrets? Only you.” We will spend the rest of
the movie resisting that collusion. She reads sections of her diaries that are
brutally harsh, often laced with the cruel humor of her reference to a colleague
- “the pig in knickers”. She gives us her reactions to people and situations in
candor rather than disguise.
Barbara
teaches in a school she considers second rate. She can silence an unruly group
with one yell, just as she can cut another teacher’s ego with a phrase. She is
not popular with her peers, just tolerated. Barbara Covett has the mean spirit
of an unhappy person. In her job she is the voice in the diaries with the
vitriol turned down.
On the day
Sheba Hart (Cate Blanchett) arrives to teach art at the school, Barbara’s plans
for her take shape at first sight. Sheba’s husband Richard (Bill Nighy,
excellent as always) is devoted to her. Barbara’s comment: “She got married too
young and started work too late.” Sheba is a caring wife and mother, but when
she says, “Marriage gives you an imperative, not substance,” we realize she is
ready for something more. The more takes the form not of a relationship with
Barbara, which the older woman craves, but with a 15 year-old student from her
art class. Making love by the train tracks and in the classroom, Sheba indulges
herself in violation of all her professional and personal values and then
accepts the proffered support of Barbara when she is discovered. By keeping the
secret, Barbara has everything to gain. Her chilling victory statement: “No one
can violate our magnificent complicity.”
What follows
is a prolonged unfolding of betrayal, discovery, rage, and resolution delivered
by Cate Blanchett who is surpassingly graceful and endearing both in her
neediness and her love of family, and by Judi Dench, willing here to be filmed
in the full dowdiness of her embittered character. If Blanchette’s Sheba is a
bit dim when it comes to the consequences of her actions, Dench’s Barbara Covett
is a lasting portrait of a lonely, cruel woman looking for a woman to love and
willing to do anything to make it happen. Lesser actors could make a hash of
this material; these two make it dazzling.
Copyright (c) Illusion