REVIEW: Notes on a Scandal

Went to the local multiplex at Edwards Renaissance Theaters in Alhambra, CA and saw Notes on a Scandal this past weekend. The movie stars Academy Award winners Dame Judi Dench (Best Supporting Actress, Shakespeare in Love) and Cate Blanchett (Best Supporting Actress, The Aviator) in an adaptation of Zoë Heller's Booker Prize-nominated novel What Was She Thinking?: Notes on a Scandal by Patrick Marber (Academy Award nominee for Closer). These principals are all nominated for 2007 Oscars, as is Phillip Glass for his evocative score.

The story is of a toxic friendship between first-time art teacher Sheba Hart (played by Blanchett) and teaching veteran Barbara Covett (played by Dench) at a gritty, urban public school in North London. The plot follows a tragic personal mistake made by Sheba Hart to begin a sexual relationship with one of her 15-year old male students. The performances by the two leads are riveting to watch, and even the supporting roles are a pleasure to behold. The veteran British actor Bill Nighy (Love, Actually and more recently Pirates of the Caribbean) plays Sheba Hart's husband (and former professor). The young (born January 1, 1989) actor who plays Sheba Hart's romantic interest Steven Connolly who is an active and willing participant in the illicit affair is Andrew Simpson. He does an excellent job of portraying a boy who is mature enough to be involved with an adult much more than twice his age but not mature enough to know how to react when the situation becomes complicated. And things DO become complicated!

The movie has a visceral emotional impact and is compelling to watch, not unlike watching a car crash in slow motion involving people we care about but do not necessarily like. The audience knows what Sheba is doing is wrong, but Blanchett does an amazing job humanizing her character. Dench's character is such a repressed, self-deluded misanthrope that her job is more difficult: to get the audience to continue to watch and attempt to understand Barbara's motivation and actions without disgust. Both actresses succeed at their tasks magnificently. However, the end result is in the service of material which tends to sully the human spirit, not dignify it. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

REVIEW: B+.