Edition: U.S. / Global


A Friendship Develops, and Obsession Follows

Giles Keyte/Fox Searchlight

Cate Blanchett, left, and Judi Dench star as two misguided teachers in the cat-and-mouse thriller "Notes on a Scandal."

Giles Keyte/Fox Searchlight

Sheba (Cate Blanchett) is caught with her student (Andrew Simpson).

The claws draw blood in “Notes on a Scandal,” a misanthropic game of cat and mouse from which no one emerges unscathed, including saps like us who think we’re watching a film about other people. Based on the novel “What Was She Thinking?: Notes on a Scandal” by the British writer Zoë Heller, the film stars Judi Dench and Cate Blanchett as colleagues nearly undone by desire.

Ms. Dench plays Barbara, an unmarried teacher with a dedicated fondness for vulnerable women of the sort personified by Ms. Blanchett’s Sheba, a married art teacher who has just joined her secondary school. Barbara wants Sheba, but what Sheba likes, wants and eventually gets is a 15-year-old boy with a downy chin and knowing smile.

What is “Notes on a Scandal”? Well, for starters, it is a painstakingly classy package. The film’s director, Richard Eyre, ran the National Theater in London, and the screenwriter, Patrick Marber, wrote the play “Closer,” which became something of a bigger cultural event when Mike Nichols decided to transpose it to the screen. (The composer for this film, doodle-doodle-doodle, is Philip Glass.) The actors in “Notes on a Scandal” are equally distinguished: Ms. Dench and Ms. Blanchett are among the finest on the market today, and each can deliver expert performances, even when, as is the case here, their roles are false and hollow. The performers sell the goods, but the goods are cheap.

Among the cheapest is Barbara Covett, an unmarried, bristly woman of a certain age, vague sexuality and clichéd contour: think sensible shoes, regrettable hair, tweedy skirts, “The Children’s Hour,” Gertrude and Alice. Much like the title character in Patricia Highsmith’s shiver-inducing novel “Edith’s Diary,” Barbara keeps a journal that serves her needs rather than the truth. In time, Edith goes completely around the bend. Barbara hasn’t arrived there yet, and though she’s well on her way, the filmmakers initially try to keep the news under wraps. An early scene of her publicly showing up the school’s fatuous principal with withering efficiency seems intended to make Barbara appear not just rational, but also a no-nonsense holdover who refuses to be gulled by New Age types and their feelings.

The entrance of the beautifully disheveled Sheba Hart changes everything. Like a tornado, she sweeps into the school and instantly upends everything, including Barbara. At first the older woman offers some resistance. She scrutinizes Sheba as if examining a pinned butterfly and criticizes her youthful attire in a voice-over that, like her put-down of the principal, appears calculated to win our sympathies if not our affection.

Sheba’s apparent kindness and solicitous behavior soon melt Barbara’s reserve and her resistance. Small gestures of friendship and shared lunches ensue. By the time Sheba invites her new colleague to lunch at her house, the floodgates have opened completely. Barbara’s diary entries and heart swell with mounting passion and hope, noisily telegraphed by Mr. Glass’s serial intrusiveness.

The plot thickens after Barbara meets Sheba’s much older husband, Richard (Bill Nighy, the reliably entertaining), and two demanding children. Sheba confesses to Barbara that she yearns for something more than domestic comfort and puttering around in her workshop. This confession, Richard’s age and the entire scene inspire Barbara’s contempt: “They do things differently in bourgeois bohemia,” she confides to us in voice-over while dining with the outwardly loving family. But as Barbara eyeballs Sheba dancing in her living room, her long torso swaying seductively to the music, it’s very obvious that she would be happy to put her prejudices aside. She gets her chance when, not long after, she discovers Sheba sexually servicing one of the high school students, Steven (Andrew Simpson), in a classroom.

There are tears and a confession, murmurs and shouts, as Barbara realizes her advantage. She pounces, but Sheba’s lust for underage flesh interferes with her plans. Slander, scandal and a conveniently dead cat add to the mix as the actresses plead their cases to the last row in the house.

Is this Judi’s film or Cate’s, Barbara’s or Sheba’s? Barbara inspires shudders and may be off her rocker; Sheba is totally hot but also a sexual predator and, it emerges, rather stupid. Judi looks a fright, but that works to her actorly advantage as much as her marvelous enunciation. Cate slinks around, soaking up male and female attention with confidence. Of course both characters are utterly despicable, as is the story that invites us into its trap just to prove that we all have our self-serving reasons, including the filmmakers.

“Notes on a Scandal” is rated R (Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian). The film contains crude language and scenes of an adult having sex with a minor.


Opens today nationwide.

Directed by Richard Eyre; written by Patrick Marber, based on the book by Zoë Heller; director of photography, Chris Menges; edited by John Bloom and Antonia Van Drimmelen; music by Philip Glass; production designer, Tim Hatley; produced by Scott Rudin and Robert Fox; released by Fox Searchlight Pictures. Running time: 92 minutes.

WITH: Judi Dench (Barbara Covett), Cate Blanchett (Sheba Hart), Bill Nighy (Richard Hart), Andrew Simpson (Steven Connolly), Phil Davis (Brian Bangs), Michael Maloney (Sandy Pabblem), Juno Temple (Polly Hart), Max Lewis (Ben Hart), Joanna Scanlan (Sue Hodge), Julia McKenzie (Marjorie) and Shaun Parkes (Bill Rumer).