Review: Thriller ‘Notes on a Scandal’ tailors to art-house crowd

Directed by: Richard Eyre

Starring: Judi Dench, Cate Blanchett, Andrew Simpson, Bill Nighy

Rated: R

“Notes on a Scandal” is a psychosexual thriller that offers nods to “Fatal Attraction” and “Single White Female.”

Every main participant in the making of the film has impeccable credentials. Judi Dench and Cate Blanchett are two of the finest actresses from two different generations. Director Richard Eyre directed the rightfully critically acclaimed “Iris” in 2001. Writer Patrick Marber wrote the screenplay for Mike Nichols’ “Closer” based on his own play.

Journal tells tale

Marber’s screenplay this time is based on Zoë Heller’s novel “What Was She Thinking?: Notes on a Scandal.”

That title is apropos, as the first act of the film is told – mostly via voice-over – in the first person by Dench’s character, Barbara Covett. Covett’s narrative is composed of her thoughts as she writes daily in the latest of her lifelong series of journals. Covett is an older, unmarried schoolmistress who seems to have few friends, except her beloved journals.

As the film progresses, we begin to realize these details are not necessarily “facts.”

Miss Covett teaches history at London’s St. George School. After decades there she describes it as a “place of habitual underachievement.” While the uniforms worn by the students give the place the air of a private school, the atmosphere is closer to “Blackboard Jungle,” with guns and crack.

Covett is not well-liked by students or faculty, but she does command a good deal of respect. This is evident when a fight breaks out in the new art teacher’s room. Sheba Hart (Blanchett) is unable to control the chaos when in walks Miss Covett, who promptly puts an end to the melee, takes the boys at the heart of it into the hall, and demands and gets an explanation.

Blanchett as Hart is grateful, and although we’ve heard Covett’s opinion of the young teacher through her narrative, the two strike up an unlikely friendship.

Hart invites Covett to Sunday dinner. The older woman believes that one should make a decent presentation when accepting an invitation but “without appearing to have made a fuss.” She gets her hair done, puts on her best dress and pearls and shows up expecting an elegant affair. What she gets is a surprise.

Hart’s husband is much older than his wife; the teenage girl is sloppily dressed, listening to an iPod; and the younger child – a boy with Down syndrome – receives his father’s total attention. The house is in somewhat of a shambles. Nonetheless, Covett keeps a stiff upper lip.

After dinner, the women retire to Hart’s island of solace, the property summerhouse. Hart is very frank in her first heart-to-heart with Covett, something that will come back to haunt her later in the film.

Covett remains friendly with Hart. It becomes increasingly clear – through her journal – that Covett is interested in Hart as something more than a friend.

The pivotal point in the film comes when Covett witnesses Hart in an act of passion, after hours at the school. To make matters more complicated, the tryst is with Steven Connelly, a 15-year-old student.

Covett is horrified, but as she’s writing in her journal, she realizes she may be able to use this knowledge to great advantage.

She confronts Hart but says she won’t blow the whistle, if she ends the affair immediately. We know her ulterior motives and little by little they become more evident to Hart as well.

All hell breaks loose in the third act of the film. Hart betrays Covett once again. This time it shall not go unreciprocated.

As everyone’s life begins to completely fall apart, Covett is certain that she is the one gaining the upper hand. She’s not quite right.

Wrap up

“Notes on a Scandal” has been described by more than one critic as sort of a “‘Fatal Attraction’ for the art-house crowd.” That may be an apt description inasmuch as art-house films tend to be more intelligently written, deftly directed and subtly photographed than Hollywood hits.

For my money, that increases the power and believability of the work.

Artsy or not, “Notes on a Scandal” will induce a good deal of uncomfortable fidgeting.

Jim Wunderle owns Wunderle Sound Services and is a Springfield free-lance writer and musician. He can be reached at info@wunderlesound.com.[[In-content Ad]]