This is one of the most gripping drama films I've seen in a long time. Supported by absolute class acting performances by Judi Dench and Cate Blanchett, the movie explores the torment and the needs of the two women as each of them become friends and then the plots unravels the dimensions of each of these characters through gradual slips of engagement. The movie goes deep into the portrayal of the immense burden of solitude that the protagonist is surrounded with, as the screenplay functions through a narration of Barbara's diary. The background score gets a bit overbearing at times, but overall it flavours the movie with a sense of brewing emotions and turmoil. I'd say it's a sleek, profound and an intact interpretation of the novel and is a must watch for people who enjoy watching drama. It does seem like a bit dark in it's overall perspective, as the viewer doesn't feel empathetic about the tragic endings of all the characters involved.

Why is a relationship between an a teacher and a young boy an interesting topic to make a movie out of? Simple - it's not. A mid-life crisis infatuation isn't something I would normally want to take two hours out of my life to watch on the telly.And indeed I was close to giving up on Notes on a Scandal. Cate Blanchett puts in a good turn as the confused attractive teacher Sheba Hart but it's just not that interesting a character. Bill Nighy is poor as the husband and Andrew Simpson is disappointingly dull as the young boy.Thank goodness then for Judi Dench. She absolutely steals the show with her portrayal of the jealous, grumpy older teacher Barbara Covett who becomes the confidante of Hart and indeed turns out to be even more infatuated with her than the schoolboy was. It's a nuanced but powerful performance - classic Dench - and transforms a terrible movie into a half- decent one. It becomes a psychological study into attraction and a fairly compelling one at that.All in all a good movie but not a personal favourite of mine.

When you watch good movies you hardly notice the passage of time. On the other hand bad movies are usually unpleasant experiences that seem to last forever. This movie falls into that bad category like a hand in a glove. Its running time is only 92 minutes but it will feel like you are watching a movie 3+ times longer. The only thing that kept me watching it was looking at my watch every 5 minutes wishing that I would soon see the final credits. At last I finally did but was disappointed about wasting 1.5 hours that could have been used for more entertaining things.Most reviewers of this film praise the excellent acting and screenplay but I don't know why. There are many breakdowns in this movie. I like Judi Dench but she is too old for her character. Her time has come and gone for roles like this. Despite this, Academy Award voters as recent as 2014 continue voting for her performances anyway. This is obviously the result of most of these voters being too old themselves so they don't know the difference.Cate Blanchett's overacting can't save a pitiful plot that movie goers have seen over and over again. In fact nothing can save this movie. I suggest saving yourself from the pain of wasting 90 minutes.

Quite by chance, I happened to see "Notes on a Scandal" and the recent "Philomena" in the same weekend, thus giving me a chance to see Judi Dench displaying two aspects of her acting talents playing two very different characters. Philomena Lee, the heroine of the recent film, is a gentle, sympathetic elderly lady, someone with great reserves of inner strength and great powers of forgiveness, even though she has been unjustly treated. Dench's character in this film, Barbara Covett, is less its heroine than its anti-heroine. Barbara is a history teacher at a comprehensive school in North London. Her closest friend is another member of the staff, Sheba Hart. The two women are very different. Barbara is an elderly spinster approaching retirement. (Dench was 72 when the film was made, but as female teachers in Britain normally retire at 62 we are presumably supposed to assume that Barbara is somewhat younger than that). She takes a very traditional approach to teaching and is a strict disciplinarian. Sheba, a married woman, is much younger than Barbara. She is an art teacher and (as all art teachers are traditionally said to be) rather bohemian in her outlook, the sort of teacher who would prefer to make every pupil her best friend rather than maintain order in the classroom.The key plot point comes when Barbara discovers that Sheba, whose marriage is not a happy one, is having a sexual relationship with a 15- year-old student. Barbara does not inform the authorities about this, but the reason for her lack of action is not simply misplaced loyalty to a friend; she may have darker, more sinister motives of her own. The film then explores the various developments arising from this situation. The film was nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Actress for Dench as Barbara and Best Supporting Actress for Cate Blanchett as Sheba. Although both actresses well deserved their nominations, I found it strange that they were nominated in different categories, because it would be difficult to say which is here the leading performance and which the supporting one. Possibly this was done so they did not have to compete against one another, although in the event both lost out, Dench to another grande dame of the British cinema, Helen Mirren in "The Queen" and Blanchett to Jennifer Hudson in "Dreamgirls". I sometimes think that the Academy should award a special "Best Joint Acting" Oscar for actors or actresses who combine together so well that they appear to give a joint performance which is greater than either of the two constituent parts. "Notes on a Scandal" is a case where such an award would be well deserved. As I said, Dench's Barbara is the film's anti-heroine rather than its heroine, but that is not quite the same as calling her the villain. She is outwardly a respectable, professional member of the community, but inwardly lonely and desperate for a friend. She is probably a repressed lesbian; the L-word is never actually used, but her growing obsession with Sheba suggests a sexual desire she is unable or unwilling to admit to, even to herself. (We learn that Barbara had earlier formed a similar friendship with another colleague, a friendship which became so obsessive that the colleague was forced to threaten her with a restraining order). She can be deceitful and manipulative, and yet we cannot help but feel some sympathy with her. Blanchett's Sheba also has some claim on our sympathy, even though she is guilty of a criminal offence in conducting an affair with an under- age boy. She seems to be going through a mid-life crisis while still in her mid thirties. Her marriage to a much older man, a college lecturer named Richard, is an unhappy one, and she feels the need for reassurance that she is still physically attractive and able to inspire affection. She too is lonely and in need of friendship, which explains why she embarks upon so desperate an affair and why she is so vulnerable to Barbara's manipulations. There are other good contributions from Bill Nighy as Richard and Andrew Simpson as Sheba's young lover Steven.The film was directed by Richard Eyre, who is perhaps better known in Britain for his work in television and the theatre than in the cinema, although he has directed other films including "Iris", which also starred Judi Dench. Like "Iris" and his more recent "The Other Man", "Notes on a Scandal" has something of the feel of a television play, both in terms of the direction and of the writing. It is a psychological drama which takes a cold-eyed look at London's bohemian intellectual classes, yet its view of its protagonists is not altogether unsympathetic. This is the sort of intelligent human drama which the British cinema does well. 8/10