DVD Reviews

Notes on a Scandal

Posted by Clayton L. White (stinky_booties@hotmail.com) on May 12, 2007

Based on the novel by Zoe Heller, adapted for the screen by Patrick Marber (Closer), and starring Judi Dench and Cate Blanchett, Notes on a Scandal seems to be a typical bigger budget extension of Masterpiece Theater, so you can imagine my surprise after putting the DVD in. This is a film that works in spite of itself, taking all of the characteristics of a typical British melodrama, including Dench, and using them to their fullest effect. Until the overwrought finale, this film is quite riveting, with Dench practically burning up the screen in what is easily the best performance of her career.

Dench plays Barbara, a history teacher who is hard on her students, and even harder on her fellow teachers, that is, of course, until the new art teacher, Sheba Hart (Blanchett), shows up. Sheba is different from the other teachers, more upper class, more attractive, and definitely more naive. She thinks that she can “make a difference” in the lives of her students. Barbara, laughing to herself, tells Sheba that teachers are nothing more than “crowd control,” and they shouldn’t be ignorant enough to think that they can have any effect on the “local pubescent prowls”. Barbara is the typical older teacher with an ax to grind. She’s lonely and sad, her only solace comes from writing in her diary and petting her cat. She eventually forms a friendship with Sheba that quickly turns into a wicked erotic obsession . This fixation grows more complex after Barbara catches Sheba doing the nasty with one of her 15 year old pupils. Filled with jealousy, Babs decides to use her newfound knowledge to her own benefit. As long as they are friends, Barbara won’t tell, but her idea of friendship is a little skewed, to say the least. Barbara preys on the attention that Sheba gives her, and she flies off the handle when Sheba has something else that occupies her time. In the end, Sheba’s temptations and Barbara’s scheming begin to have an effect on everyone around them, leading the film to it’s perfunctory third act.

Besides the ending, the film has a number of other flaws that keep it from approaching greatness. Andrew Simpson, who plays the student that Sheba falls for, tries to be a Don Juan, but ultimately comes off as just flat out annoying. No doubt the kid was overexcited about the chance to slip Blanchett some tongue, but his performance is flat and awkward, and it’s very hard to believe that any intelligent woman would be so smitten with such a little punk. This in itself provides the film with its biggest conundrum. These kinds of events happen too often in real life, and I always wonder what leads these seemingly normal teachers to commit such an act. I think that would make an interesting story, but evidently the makers of this film disagree. We are given no motivation at all for Sheba’s actions. Obviously, any kind of justification would be inexcusable, but this film doesn’t even make an attempt. Sheba whines about her husband (an excellent Bill Nighy), but the film shows us that he’s a perfectly rational man who has nothing but love for his family. Sheba has two children, a teenage daughter and a twelve year old son who has Down syndrome. The daughter seems to live a typical teenage life, talking on the phone, fretting about her boyfriend, nothing out of the norm for a teenager, and her son is a happy, loving child that any parent would be blessed to have. I don’t understand why she feels the need to jeopardize the future of her family, but the film wants us to buy the fact that she feels restricted by the conformities of family life. In real life cases, the perpetrator usually has this kind of asinine excuse, but the film wants us to identify with Sheba. Oh, look at the poor wife and mother, she feels constricted by her family, so she goes and knocks boots with a 15 year old. Sorry, not buying it.

Dench’s character isn’t much better. She’s a devious old hag that seems intent on sucking the marrow out of every person she gets to know. She has absolutely no morals whatsoever, and she thrives on that fact. The only time she ever feels bad about anything is when her cat gets sick. When the poor thing finally takes a dirt nap, we actually get to see some real emotion behind Barbara’s rough and tumble facade. The one constant companion in her life has left her alone, like everyone else she’s ever met. Dench does her best to make the audience feel some sympathy for Barbara, even though she’s a seemingly horrible person. She is the main saving grace in the film, keeping us interested just to see what will finally happen to her.

Aside from the shallow character development, we get some painfully obvious symbolism that threatens to betray any bit of seriousness in the film. Barbara’s last name is Covett (get it, covet?), and Sheba is short for Bathsheba (you know, David’s wife?). Heller might have thought this stuff was clever when she was writing the book, but Marber, who is an intelligent writer, should have had enough sense to squash some of it while he was writing the screenplay. There’s also the unfortunate fact that Barbara narrates the film in a voice over that it sometimes funny, but mostly just smarmy and irritating. Marber pays penance and makes up for the shortcomings by providing the film with some very sharp dialogue that the actors chew up and spit out with the required amount of nastiness. I was reminded a lot of Marber’s Closer, another film that had totally irredeemable characters that were saved by witty dialogue.

The dialogue and the acting take this film a long way, but it’s aided immeasurably by the contributions of Richard Eyre’s collaborators. Eyre, (Iris) a former stage director, does little more than place the actors in a room and turn the camera on, but the great cinematographer Chris Menges (The Killing Fields) does his best to make the film look more brutal than the story provides. On top of this, you get one of world’s great musicians, Philip Glass (The Thin Blue Line, The Illusionist), providing the film with a marvelous score that gives the entire thing just enough tragic grandeur to be taken seriously . All the while Dench, who usually phones this stuff in while waiting for payday, has a ball with her role that elevates this film in the same way that Forest Whitaker made The Last King of Scotland watchable. Nighy is exceptionally good as well, giving some real depth to a very underwritten role, and Blanchett, as usual, is quite reliable.

This isn’t a film that will stick in your memory, but at 92 minutes it tends to go by pretty quick. It tells a story that is interesting, relevant, and sometimes even enthralling. The acting borders on perfection, while the technical aspects go way beyond admirable, adding up to a fairly solid film that will keep you entertained at the least. There was definitely potential here to do much more, but the end result is nothing to shake a finger at and it’s most certainly worth the price of a rental.