Opening

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Notes on a Scandal (2006)

tomatometer

87

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.

90

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.

audience

81

liked it
Average Rating: 3.7/5
User Ratings: 76,316

My Rating

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

R,

Drama

Patrick Marber

Apr 17, 2007

$17.4M

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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.

February 9, 2007 Full Review Source: Christian Science Monitor
Christian Science Monitor
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Richard 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.

February 3, 2007 Full Review Source: Time Out New York
Time Out New York
Top Critic IconTop Critic

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.

January 25, 2007 Full Review Source: Time Out
Time Out
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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.

January 12, 2007 Full Review Source: Orlando Sentinel
Orlando Sentinel
Top Critic IconTop Critic

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.

January 11, 2007 Full Review Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Top Critic IconTop Critic

In England, it seems, actresses have nothing to fear from age. They can simply wait for writers to create fresh work for them.

January 8, 2007
New Yorker
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Lurid melodrama lifted by corrosive writing and a frightening performance from the Dame.

November 7, 2012 Full Review Source: Empire Magazine Australasia
Empire Magazine Australasia

Stages the story with a tastefulness both ponderous and dishonest

August 28, 2009 Full Review Source: CinePassion
CinePassion

Smart and brash, it's a picture Bette Davis and Joan Crawford would have killed (preferably each other) to be in.

May 15, 2009 Full Review Source: I.E. Weekly
I.E. Weekly

British cinema fans shouldn't miss this one.

April 23, 2009 Full Review Source: Boston Phoenix
Boston Phoenix

Eyre paces it with an eye for the telling detail, and Blanchett and Dench give harrowing, fearless performances.

August 7, 2008 Full Review Source: Sacramento News & Review
Sacramento News & Review

Dark tale of betrayal and fixation isn't for kids.

July 24, 2008 Full Review Source: Common Sense Media
Common Sense Media

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.

February 28, 2008 Full Review Source: BrandonFibbs.com
BrandonFibbs.com

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.

June 5, 2007 Full Review Source: 7M Pictures
7M Pictures

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.

April 17, 2007 Full Review Source: Blogcritics.org
Blogcritics.org

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.

April 16, 2007
Buzzine Magazine

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.

April 15, 2007 Full Review Source: EmanuelLevy.Com
EmanuelLevy.Com

Like a British version of Mary Kay Letourneau, the shameless hussy just can't get enough of her veritable Vili Fualaau.

April 12, 2007 Full Review Source: NewsBlaze
NewsBlaze

Audience Reviews for Notes on a Scandal

I got very little out of this movie. Tired, obvious subject, played for melodrama, poorly. Philip Glass score was just too up-front.
April 2, 2007
brooklynspo

Super Reviewer

Overblown, melodramatic and hysterical psycho-drama about older woman's twisted obsession to a younger teacher collague of her. Richard Eyre's approach to story, written by Patrick Marber, feels bland and lifeless. Marber's story becomes more and more absurd and honestly ridicilous as the film goes forward and the last twenty minutes are just stupid as hell to watch.
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.
September 10, 2012
emilkakko

Super Reviewer

    1. Barbara Covett: No one can violate our magnificent complicity.
    – Submitted by Raj G (15 months ago)
    1. Barbara Covett: Well, I am glad I was such an aphrodisiac.
    – Submitted by Raj G (15 months ago)
    1. Sheba Hart: You think this is a love affair? A relationship?
    – Submitted by Raj G (15 months ago)

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