Cheap Notes on a Scandal (DVD) (Richard Eyre) Price

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Customer Reviews of Notes on a Scandal

Thilling Story
Judi Dench sinks her teeth into the part of Barbara Covett, a cynical and acerbic history teacher putting in time in an inner city school. <
>Enter Cate Blanchett, playing Sheba Hart, the new art teacher, fragile, naive, innocent and hopeful. Barbara quickly ensconces herself into Sheba's life, becoming confidante and friend. <
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>And then the plot thickens and assumes the intensity of a thriller as Sheba's life starts to fall apart, secretly abetted by Barbara. The tension does not let up until the very last frame and the viewer is never quite sure where this ride is going. <
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>Sheba and Barbara are very alike at their cores, there is a fragile 'fatal attraction' theme running through their relationship, shadowed by Sheba's impossible affair with a fifteen year old boy which is in turn shadowed by her Down's Syndrome son who is of an age with her student, and again this is shadowed by her daughter's coming of age love troubles and overall the shadow of her own marriage to a much older man, who left his wife and children for her teenage self. <
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>Barbara has her shadows too and they start to trickle through and become more vocalized and by others, as the stories unfold. <
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>Every film should aspire to be as satisfying as this one is - on every level, and there are so many layers to it all. Nothing is as it appears and the film unwinds in the form of comments and voice-overs from the many journals of the protagonist. Movie making at its finest.

Fascinating story, and first-rate acting
If for no other reason than to see examples of the finest of film acting, watch this film. There are aspects of the plot and motivations that I found not quite credible--too contrived, too unexplained. I also felt that the ending owed a lot to the ending of a book and film from decades ago: "The Collector." But every actor acquits themselves admirably, most especially Dame Judi who is 110% believable, and it's fascinating to watch her disappear within her character. The character--aged, malicious, unattractive, arrogant, lonely, obsessed, frustrated--is not a mere stereotype of a spinster school teacher. There are hidden depths of deceipt, destruction, delusion, danger, despair, disappointment, and desperation that ALMOST create sympathy when one is not actually hissing at the screen. And the Cate Blanchett character is equally obsessive and self-destructive, though we are less clear on why--other than a disabled child, she seems to have a perfect life. Every supporting player, every detail of clothing and art direction and setting, is perfectly apropos. <
>The special features include commentary on the whole film, special scenes and comments from the actor, and behind-the-scenes clips.