Notes on a Scandal

Released:  December 25^th, 2006

Rated:  R

Distributor:  Fox Searchlight Pictures

Starring:  Judi Dench, Cate Blanchett, Bill Nighy

Directed by:  Richard Eyre

Written by:  Patrick Marber

Personal Bias Alert:  haven’t read the book, loves Philip Glass scores

8.5 of 10

            Behind the opening credits rolls a shot of notebooks, colorfully clustered and dated into little groups that tantalizingly hint at a hidden meaning.  The owner of these diaries is an older, single woman named Barbara (Judi Dench), who we see writing detailed, overblown entries in her current edition.  Her life is very simple:  teach, feed her cat, and wallow in the bitterness she feels towards a world that wants nothing to do with her.  Or so it would seem.  As we dive deeper into the woman’s mind, the organization of her diaries becomes clear, and we get a glimpse at her notes on one very particular scandal.

            This era in Barbara’s life is dominated by the presence of a new friend and colleague, Sheba (Cate Blanchett).  Sheba is the polar opposite of Barbara, a magnetic young butterfly lilting through the school’s insular world.  Everyone wants to be her friend, but Barbara manages to catch her eye, and soon the pair are sharing coffee and secrets.  Barbara proves much more invested in the relationship, and her conniving soon forces their lives to intertwine in a way that can only blow apart.

            The film is an unapologetically melodramatic stew of blistering observations and grand plotting, propelled with gusto by a prominent score from Philip Glass.  There’s a pulpy level that it can be enjoyed at, bounding along to the inevitable blowout that gloriously begins with a disheveled and brimming Blanchett sliding into frame.  But living alongside this, if you choose to acknowledge it, is an unwieldy world of bad guys and worse guys, one that never gives you a safe character to lean on but never lets you turn your back on any of them, either.  For all their faults, Barbara, Sheba, and their accompanying side players are given the dignity of some soft edges, some quiet moments that are utterly humane in their simplicity.  Their motivations are easily understood, even when it leads them to insanity.  It’s the kind of careful character building that elevates schlock into art and adds a layer of tragedy that lesser melodramatic fare lacks entirely.

            While we’re on the subject of elevation, let’s discuss the elephant in the room:  Dench and Blanchett.  One’s a legend and the other’s on her way, and the thought of the two being unleashed with each other, even back in 2006, was enough to salivate over.  And they are glorious together, grappling with their character’s big and small moments in a pair of pitch-perfect turns.  Their third wheel, Sheba’s husband played by Bill Nighy, proves to be right on par with the two leads, and the glorious riches that surround these main players are too numerous to list (Juno Temple as their daughter and Anne-Marie Duff in a bit part are just two).  Even if operatic melodrama simply isn’t to your taste, the power and skill of nearly every performance in Notes on a Scandal will be a satisfying reward for the time you invest.

            It would’ve been easy to get lost in the grandeur of this film, but director Richard Eyre and screenwriter Patrick Marber carefully infused the film’s world with such depth that there’s always something new to sink your teeth into.  Pay attention to the things littering Barbara and Sheba’s homes; an entire story can be found in the distinction between their worlds.  Eyre brings themes to life through the careful framing of Dench’s ever-present eyes, and Marber creates (or brilliantly lifts from the book) delightfully wicked turns of phrases that will stick in your mind for years to come.  Their balance of such fine details with the story’s larger elements is an impressive trick and one that is rarely pulled off so seamlessly.

            Perhaps these seemingly incongruous elements are to blame for this film’s current near-obscurity.  It was lauded by critics at the time of its release, but you now rarely hear it brought up, even when discussing Dench and Blanchett’s legacies.  Audiences didn’t shell out much money to see it upon its theatrical release, and there’s been no groundswell of support in the preceding years.  Whatever the reason for the film’s fading, it would be shameful to allow such cracking wit, such sympathetically flawed characters, and such electric performances to be forgotten.

Other Notes:

Ø  Dench’s delivery of the term ‘bourgeois bohemia’ has stuck in my mind for nearly ten years.

Ø  Note that the last names of the two main characters hint at their fatal flaws.

Ø  “It’s the distance between life as you dream it and life as it is.”