"Notes on a Scandal" is great drama with the occasional laugh out loud line, making it borderline black comedy, but not quite.
The setting is London's St. George School and it's the beginning of a new school year. We immediately meet the teaching staff, led by Barbara Covett (Judi Dench), the extremely tightly wrapped matriarch of the bunch. The new teacher in town is the fetching and somewhat hippiesh art teacher, Sheba Hart (Cate Blanchett).
From the opening bell this movie sizzles, primarily because of outstanding performances by Dench (does she ever give anything less?) and Blanchett. Throw in the ace direction of Richard Eyre (Iris) and the crackling dialog of Patrick Marber based on the novel by Zoe Heller. There are no weak links in this chain.
Barbara Covett narrates and Eyre keeps the camera trained on her. Covett is bright, sarcastic and caustic but we sense that we don't know all we will eventually learn about her. Hart is the flame to which all of the moths fly. The teachers and the students are all drawn to her good looks and warm demeanor. She's a dramatic rather than comedic version of Cameron Diaz in "Something About Mary".
At first Covett is repulsed by Hart and all the fawning over her. She goes home every day after school and writes about it in her diary, an act she has been performing for a very long time.
Eventually Barbara warms to Sheba both in person and in her writing. Then the roller coaster ride of secrets kept by Barbara and Sheba, respectively, unfolds. Eyre keeps amping up the drama, at times evoking a kind of Hitchcockian feel. Then he reels us back in and tosses us right back onto the ride. The ride is bumpy and flows smoothly all at once. The director does a wonderful job of balancing the heightened tensions as they careen around. At the center of every storm is Barbara, and Dench obviously is loving every moment of perhaps her most cutting edge role of her career.
As we realize that we are heading into a world of taboos we can't help but marvel at the journey, and at the deft hand that leads us there. Because of the nature of the film, I'll refrain from giving any details about how things are revealed and spun - I always like to go into a film without knowing too much about it, and I like to give our reading audience the same opportunity, particularly with a film such as this.
Look for Dench to receive another Oscar nomination and possibly taking the statue home. Hell, we should just give her one every time.
