I saw "Scandal" once and was mesmerized, and sent it back to Netfix too soon. And now I want to read the book. I agree with many others here that Judi Dench had a far more meaty role than Helen Mirren did in "The Queen,"and that Dench should have won Best Actress.
Dench owns the screen, and it's hard to picture anyone else playing Sheba besides Cate Blanchett.
I was reminded of "Vertigo" when Dench's Barbara goes and gets herself a makeover -- even bringing flowers like a suitor -- when she visits Sheba's home for the first time. Sheba's daughter Polly asks Barbara why she's "all poshed up." But she doesn't keep up this new look, instead reverting back to her drab, haggard self.
I was also reminded of "The Collector," in that Barbara "cages" someone who represents things she wants and wants to be. She holds them down like a bug under glass, and then rejects and torments the person she has ensnared.
In "Notes on a Scandal," Sheba, (Blanchett) the new art teacher at a school where Barbara has reigned over the history department for decades, is a perfect specimen for Barbara to draw into her web. And once Sheba has begun an affair with one of her students and confides in Barbara about it, Barbara finds the chance to expose her "friend" a gleeful and very simple exercise.
Voiceovers don't always succeed in movies, but Barbara's reading from her diary seems to me to be essential here. Her pen drips with venom and she occasionally awards gold stars on its pages to those who have pleased her. Her musings are by turns grim, wry and sad. It's all pathetic of course to hear Barbara's divergent point of view from reality, but with Dench's perfect, arch enunciation of its words the diary becomes a whole other character.
At one point, Barbara tells her diary words to the effect that Sheba is one in a series of "projects" she has taken on; we later learn what happened to the last object of Barbara's attentions, and we see that there may be another "project" who may take Barbara's bait.
Barbara is nothing if not relentless. In a way she objectifies Sheba. It's possible she did the same to Jennifer Dodd and may do the same with Annabelle. But to what purpose? It's hard to define the purpose of evil -- it seems to sometimes exist merely for its own sake -- but it's not difficult to miss its defining characteristics. Barbara and her diary are portraits of evil dressed in plain, drab wrappers which belie that which they truly are.
Dench owns the screen, and it's hard to picture anyone else playing Sheba besides Cate Blanchett.
I was reminded of "Vertigo" when Dench's Barbara goes and gets herself a makeover -- even bringing flowers like a suitor -- when she visits Sheba's home for the first time. Sheba's daughter Polly asks Barbara why she's "all poshed up." But she doesn't keep up this new look, instead reverting back to her drab, haggard self.
I was also reminded of "The Collector," in that Barbara "cages" someone who represents things she wants and wants to be. She holds them down like a bug under glass, and then rejects and torments the person she has ensnared.
In "Notes on a Scandal," Sheba, (Blanchett) the new art teacher at a school where Barbara has reigned over the history department for decades, is a perfect specimen for Barbara to draw into her web. And once Sheba has begun an affair with one of her students and confides in Barbara about it, Barbara finds the chance to expose her "friend" a gleeful and very simple exercise.
Voiceovers don't always succeed in movies, but Barbara's reading from her diary seems to me to be essential here. Her pen drips with venom and she occasionally awards gold stars on its pages to those who have pleased her. Her musings are by turns grim, wry and sad. It's all pathetic of course to hear Barbara's divergent point of view from reality, but with Dench's perfect, arch enunciation of its words the diary becomes a whole other character.
At one point, Barbara tells her diary words to the effect that Sheba is one in a series of "projects" she has taken on; we later learn what happened to the last object of Barbara's attentions, and we see that there may be another "project" who may take Barbara's bait.
Barbara is nothing if not relentless. In a way she objectifies Sheba. It's possible she did the same to Jennifer Dodd and may do the same with Annabelle. But to what purpose? It's hard to define the purpose of evil -- it seems to sometimes exist merely for its own sake -- but it's not difficult to miss its defining characteristics. Barbara and her diary are portraits of evil dressed in plain, drab wrappers which belie that which they truly are.