Sometimes being pigeonholed can be a good thing. Take, for instance, “Notes on a Scandal,” the latest Judi Dench movie. It comes out during awards season—like most of her movies do—to help secure the highly respected British actress another Oscar nomination. (When she gets one for this movie, it will be her sixth.) We have come to expect Dame Dench to play the older lady who bucks some kind of societal tradition in a charming but fairly safe manner in a lavish period piece.
What a pleasant surprise it is to see Dench be rotten and nasty in “Notes on a Scandal.” The wonder of her wickedly funny performance is that it also elicits so much sympathy.
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Narration is rarely used this effectively, as a window into the psyche of veteran London high school teacher Barbara Covett (Dench). From the beginning, her voice-over has a jarringly unsavory tone. A disciplinarian who regards her students as nothing more than a nuisance and views her job to be more sheepherder than educator, Barbara takes sick joy in watching new young art teacher Sheba (Cate Blanchett) arrive at the school filled with idealism. She mocks her cruelly at first, but is soon attracted to Sheba’s mix of naivete and vulnerability.
The screenplay, adapted by Patrick Marber from a book by Zoe Heller, establishes Barbara’s ulterior motives with some of the most stinging onscreen dialogue since Marber brought “Closer” to the screen two years ago. Despite her obsessive ramblings, however, Barbara connects with the audience on the basest of levels. An older woman who lives alone with a dying cat, she understands the need for companionship. When she cannot get it, she becomes a wild beast.
Apart from its devilish tone, “Notes on a Scandal” also has some interesting things to say about what constitutes a relationship. It is a given that friends are people we can tell our secrets to. They exist to support each other. But what value can one place on giving support? As Barbara schemes in the latest volume of her seemingly never-ending diary, we realize that the elder teacher regards a secret as something more than a bond between two friends—it is a limitless supply of leverage.
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Dench’s tightly pursed face and curt manner are refreshing when most of the other teachers are bland working stiffs. It is a guilty pleasure for us to slip into Barbara’s skin for a while and view the world through her grizzled eyes. It is especially easy to do when Sheba makes consistently bad choices, and Barbara’s pessimistic view of the school’s evils seems right on the money.
Credit director Richard Eyre (”Iris,” “Stage Beauty”) for more subtle character building. He gives us Barbara’s perspective by fixing the camera’s gaze on Sheba’s exposed midriff or a strand of hair that falls from her head, seeing the inexperienced teacher the way Barbara does. Blanchett is in top form as well. She radiates a natural sexuality that her character seems to be completely oblivious to.
The narration has an acerbic wit that strikes a chord by saying out loud the things that we often think but would never admit to thinking. In the film’s opening, Barbara tells us that she is often the keeper of other people’s secrets. But who keeps hers, she asks? In “Notes on a Scandal,” it’s the audience who keeps them, by way of her illicit diary, and it’s an electrifying place to be.
