View Trailer:

Adapted from Zie Heller's best selling novel, known for its unreliable narrator and salient observations, by Patrick Marber (Closer), Notes On A Scandal tells a tangled tale of staff room politics, as new teacher Sheba Hart (Blanchett) begins a tentative friendship with veteran Barbara Covett (Dench). Things become complicated when the seemingly happily married Sheba begins an illicit affair with a student at the school, a potentially explosive secret that Barbara uses to turn matters to her advantage. 

Two women caught up in a drama of need and betrayal are at the heart of this psychological thriller.  The twists and turns of the story are noted in the acerbic diary of Barbara Covett, a domineering and solitary teacher who rules with an iron fist over her classroom at a decaying state-run secondary school in London.  Save for her cat, Portia, Barbara lives alone, without friends or confidantes � but her world changes when she meets the school's new art teacher, Sheba Hart. Sheba appears to be the kindred spirit and loyal friend Barbara has always been seeking. But when she discovers that Sheba is having an incendiary affair with one of her young students (Andrew Simpson), their budding relationship takes an ominous turn.  Now, as Barbara threatens to expose Sheba's terrible secret to both her husband (Nighy) and the world, Barbara's own secrets and dark obsessions come tumbling to the fore, exposing the deceptions at the core of each of the women's lives.

Returning with Dame Judi Dench after the success of Iris, National Theatre Director Richard Eyre�s Notes on a Scandal is understandably theatrical allowing us to see these two magnificent actresses duke it out at close range. Blanchett is bohemian and vulnerable. Dench�s Barbara is a three dimensional character fuelled by bitterness and loneliness.

It could be said it is all a bit Richard Curtis (Notting Hill, Bridget Jones' Diary) in its anaemic middle-class North London setting; especially in the way that very few of the supporting characters get any screen time at all, just like comedy friends in Curtis� films. But as a character study, Blanchett and Dench, with the help of an acerbic script, keep you gripped.

In the end the plot does get formulaic with nods to the thriller genre and Barbara�s previous �victims�. Notes on a Scandal is a compelling, morally interesting two-hander, where flawed characters and middle-class assumptions are tested in the fire of scandal. Followers of these actresses will enjoy the ride. For anyone else, unless the terribly middle-classness of it all is a turn off, Notes on a Scandal is a well made conversation starter.

Editors note:

Notes on a Scandal received three BAFTA nominations for Best British Film, Best Actress for Academy Award winner Dame Judi Dench (Shakespear In Love, Iris) and Best Adapted Screenplay for Patrick Marber.  Dench and Marber also received Golden Globe nominations, as did Academy Award winner Cate Blanchett (The Aviator, Elizabeth, Babel), for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role.  The film also received four Academy Award nominatons, for Best Actress (Dench), Best Supporting Actress (Blanchett), Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Original Score for Philip Glass.