Notes on a Scandal
Written by Patrick Marber
Directed by Richard Eyre
Fox Searchlight
2006
Rating:


Patricia Highsmith practically invented the psychological-thriller-with-homosexual-overtones ("Strangers on a Train," "The Talented Mr. Ripley"). She was also a noted diarist prone to imagining the darkest impulses of her acquaintances and her personality was considered by some to be borderline misanthropic. As such "Notes on a Scandal" in some way feels like the semiautobiographical thriller Highsmith never got around to writing so author Zoë Heller did it for her.

"Notes on a Scandal" is narrated with delicious disdain from the diary of Barbara Covett (Judi Dench), a spinster who spits bile at the administrators, teachers and students at the British school where she works. Barbara discharges contempt against new teacher Sheba Hart (Cate Blanchett) as well until Sheba, eager to make friends, allows Barbara into her home and confides in her the disappointments and frustrations of her life. Then Barbara catches Sheba having an affair with a 15-year-old student (Andrew Simpson) and Barbara uses the knowledge to blackmail Sheba into a more tortuous relationship.

The presence of acting royalty Dench and Blanchett elevates the genre material perhaps too much for what could've been delicious camp with a pulp center. Director Richard Eyre ("Iris") and screenwriter Patrick Marber ("Closer") restrain the "Fatal Attraction" plotting even as composer Philip Glass' recycled score attempts to push it over the edge. Dench and Blanchett even seem game to go further, with Blanchett howling at a frenzied paparazzi in one scene and Dench, still revelatory after all these years, acidly feisty as a malicious predator. The odd decision to be tasteful robs "Notes on a Scandal" of some of its juice, leaving Dench and Blanchett to supply all the power.

Posted Saturday, January 20, 2007

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http://filmzeus.pressbin.com/film/notes.on.a.scandal