Review: Notes on a Scandal

UK release date: 2nd February

Judi Dench reunites with Iris director Richard Eyre to give one of the most intense performances of her career in this gritty, observational drama based on Zoë Heller’s bestselling novel.

The Oscar-nominated Dench injects malignant spite into the role of Barbara Covett, a lonely London teacher who develops a dark obsession with her spirited new colleague Sheba (fellow nominee Cate Blanchett). After catching Sheba in a compromising position with an underage student, Barbara’s fixation reaches skin-crawling levels.

Dench and Blanchett really sink their teeth into their meaty characters, clearly relishing Closer scribe Patrick Marber’s deliciously acerbic script. Yet what makes Dench’s performance the stronger of the pair is her skilful manipulation of the audience’s emotions — eliciting initial sympathy, despite Barbara’s sharp tongue, so that her subsequent behaviour hits even harder.

The film’s melodramatic climax packs less of a punch, but this is still deeply satisfying adult viewing, complemented by a mood-enhancing Philip Glass score.

Radio Times rating:

****

UK cinema certificate 15
Running time 91mins

Review by Sloan Freer

News: Judi Dench

This week’s Notes on a Scandal has once again brought Dame Judi nothing but praise for her complex performance.

Nominations to date include for Best Actress at the Academy Awards (her 6th nomination), BAFTAS (her 21st), Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards, Chicago Film Critics Association Awards, Golden Globes (her 7th), London critics Circle Film Awards, Online Film Critics Society Awards, Satellite Awards, and the Screen Actors Guild Awards (her 9th). Her only real problem is that in pretty much all of them she’s been up against her fellow Dame, Helen Mirren, who’s cleaning up for her performance in The Queen.

With nothing other than Bond 22 on the cards, when will Judi get herself another award? It’s become pretty unusual for her to go a year without one these days…

News: Cate Blanchett

Having picked up a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination for this week’s Notes on a Scandal (alongside many other nominations for more minor awards shows), next up, in early March, will be the much-anticipated Steven Soderbergh look at the chaos and confusion of Berlin in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War, The Good German, with George Clooney and Tobey Maguire filling out the leads.

Then Blanchett will go back further in time to take on the role of Queen Elizabeth I once again for The Golden Age – a sequel to 1997’s Elizabeth that reunites much of the same cast and crew to look at the queen’s reign a few years down the line, and her relationship with Clive Owen’s Sir Walter Raleigh. Another to look forward to is the experimental Todd Haynes look at the life and work of Bob Dylan, I’m Not There, where different actors – including Blanchett, Christian Bale, Richard Gere and Heath Ledger – will play different aspects of the musician. It’ll be decidedly odd, but could well prove odd in a good way, based on Haynes’ past outings.

Finally – and sadly potentially her last film for a while, as she has recently announced plans to go back to her native Australia to run a theatre – is The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, for director David Fincher. Based on an F Scott Fitzgerald story, it revolves around the relationship between a 30-year-old woman and a man (to be played by Brad Pitt) who, at the age of 50, begins to grow younger again. After what he managed to pull with Fight Club, it’s just possible Fincher could pull that off…