Notes on a Scandal (2006)
Average Rating: 7.5/10
Reviews Counted: 169
Fresh: 147 | Rotten: 22
In this sharp psychological thriller, Judi Dench and Cate Blanchett give fierce, memorable performances as two schoolteachers locked in a battle of wits.
Average Rating: 8/10
Critic Reviews: 41
Fresh: 37 | Rotten: 4
In this sharp psychological thriller, Judi Dench and Cate Blanchett give fierce, memorable performances as two schoolteachers locked in a battle of wits.
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Average Rating: 3.7/5
User Ratings: 76,316
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Movie Info
Lust, jealousy, and revenge come cloaked in the guise of friendship in this psychological drama. Barbara Covett (Judi Dench) is a history teacher at a high school in London; while elderly Barbara is very bright, she's also severe and domineering, with a strong personality that tends to put people off. Barbara also takes a voyeuristic delight in recording the actions of those around her in her diary in the most minute detail. When Sheba Hart (Cate Blanchett), a bright and attractive woman in her
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Cast
-
Judi Dench
Barbara Covett -
Cate Blanchett
Sheba Hart -
Bill Nighy
Richard Hart -
Andrew Simpson
Steven Connolly -
Phil Davis
Brian Bangs -
Michael Maloney
Sandy Pabblem -
Juno Temple
Polly Hart -
Max Lewis
Ben Hart -
Joanna Scanlan
Sue Hodge -
Julia McKenzie
Marjorie -
Shaun Parkes
Bill Rumer -
Tom Georgeson
Ted Mawson -
Edna Kennedy
Linda -
Syreeta Kumar
Gita -
Wendy Nottingham
Elaine Clifford -
Tameka Empson
Antonia Robinson -
Leon Skinner
Davis -
Debra Gillett
Lorraine -
Barry McCarthy
Dave -
Adrian Scarborough
Martin -
Jill Baker
Sheba's Mother -
Diana Berriman
Marcia -
Alice Bird
Saskia -
Benedict Taylor
Eddie -
Miranda Pleasence
Eddie's Wife -
Jonathan Speer
Vet -
Stephen Kennedy
Mr. Connolly -
Derbhle Crotty
Mrs. Connolly -
Catherine Drew
Newsreader -
Anne-Marie Duff
Annabel
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All Critics (170) | Top Critics (41) | Fresh (152) | Rotten (23) | DVD (24)
Blanchett has also recently appeared in The Good German and Babel, but this represents far and away her best work.
Top CriticRichard Eyre's direction merely plays up the melodramatic aspects of Zoë Heller's novel, screenwriter Patrick Marber's acidic dialogue occasionally slips into the overwritten, and the rest of the cast gamely chews table scraps.
Bill Nighy is stunning in the small but pivotal role of Sheba's devastated husband, and Dench locates the desperate pathos in Barbara's malevolence.
This compact, fierce and frightening domestic thriller is the most violent film in many a day. The rage is in the angry words, the deepest thoughts of its 'heroine,' and the fear about what might come from those words is palpable.
While Glenn Close played her Fatal Attraction character's 'I will not be ignored' psycho-obsession out front and out loud, Dench does it as subtext, making it all the more insidious, frightening ... and fascinating.
In England, it seems, actresses have nothing to fear from age. They can simply wait for writers to create fresh work for them.
Lurid melodrama lifted by corrosive writing and a frightening performance from the Dame.
Stages the story with a tastefulness both ponderous and dishonest
Smart and brash, it's a picture Bette Davis and Joan Crawford would have killed (preferably each other) to be in.
British cinema fans shouldn't miss this one.
Eyre paces it with an eye for the telling detail, and Blanchett and Dench give harrowing, fearless performances.
Dark tale of betrayal and fixation isn't for kids.
Notes on a Scandal is melodrama at its best -- a nasty, wickedly good, over-the-top story with school teachers standing in where vampires usually prowl.
born from watching too many episodes of Jerry Springer, and the filmmakers decided it would be more accepted by the Academy if the characters had British accents.
The characters' motives are base enough, and there's an odd combination of petty incidents having walloping consequences, but the ironies are as delicately layered and "delicious" as they could possibly be without a hint of preciosity.
These two characters could so easily have been cardboard cutouts, but thanks to excellent acting, crafty writing and deft direction, Notes on a Scandal makes poison pen letters seem like love notes.
In one of several commentaries, The Story of Two Obsessions, helmer Richard Eyre relates Dame Dench's conduct: "She Doesn't brood around the set being Barbara (as Method Actor). She's Judi Dench, telling anecdotes up to the last moment when I say Action.
Like a British version of Mary Kay Letourneau, the shameless hussy just can't get enough of her veritable Vili Fualaau.
Audience Reviews for Notes on a Scandal
Super Reviewer
Judi Dench's psycho-bitch is like a character lifted from some lame horror-film. There is not a single moment here where her character feels actually real person or where her actions feel reasonable at all. Dench's over acting does not also help a single bit and same goes for cate Blanchett's performance which ranks as one of her worst to date. Nothing still can beat the cheesy and embarrasing performance from Bill Nighy which is so bad that it is almost need to be seen.
Notes on a Scandal begins like any average British TV-drama but turns very soon into familiar kind of variation of films like Fatal Attraction, Misery or Single White Feamle, but with the exception that this film is utter garbage. It is hard to find anything to recommend here.
Super Reviewer
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- Barbara Covett: No one can violate our magnificent complicity.
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- Barbara Covett: Well, I am glad I was such an aphrodisiac.
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- Sheba Hart: You think this is a love affair? A relationship?
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Foreign Titles
- Chronique d'un scandale (FR)
