UK Edition
Feeds
Screenwriter: Patrick Marber
Starring: Judi Dench, Cate Blanchett, Bill Nighy, Andrew Simpson
Running time: 95 mins
Certificate: 15
Barbara Covett (Judi Dench) is an old battleaxe of a school mistress. Stand-offish and friendless, her extra-curricular activities barely stretch beyond keeping a diary and an ailing cat. Cate Blanchett plays Sheba Hart, who starts work as the art teacher at Barbara's North London school. Though at first unimpressed with Sheba, Barbara soon becomes transfixed in her observation of her new colleague.
When she becomes aware of Sheba's affair with a 15-year-old pupil, as the guardian of the secret Barbara holds an enormous power over her young friend, which she progressively exercises to make herself Sheba's one and only source of friendship and support.
Both of the film's lead characters are morally corrupt, though it is hard not to feel sympathy for the pair of them. Playing against type effectively, Dench's Barbara ranges from such monstrous and reprehensible selfish acts of manipulation, but then the fragility and loneliness with which Dench endows her forbids us from condemning her completely. Meanwhile, Blanchett makes us sympathise with the well-painted Sheba, trying to escape her everyday life with her Down's Syndrome son and older husband (the ever-wonderful Bill Nighy).
Sheba's relationship, or at least affair, with her pupil ( now 18-year-old Andrew Simpson) never in any sense comes across as acceptable in any way, and Simpson straddles the adolescent schoolchild/adult boundary very well. We're made to understand the characters' situation without ever being made to accept it.
Based on Zoe Heller's novel What Was She Thinking?, Notes is an unconventional psychological thriller, the performances and pacing hook the audience into Sheba's predicament. The cast does well to make us believe in their characters' motivations and actions, even though Sheba in particular sometimes makes some odd moves. An occasionally over-the-top soundtrack from Philip Glass helps to keep up the tension levels.
A well-executed tale of two lonely women, Notes On A Scandal is both an enthralling thriller and a memorable drama.
Almost there. Your clueword can be found in our interview with Heroes star Sendhil Ramamurthy.
