Isn’t it the plain truth that in fiction, stories about the anti-hero are always more compelling than something with morals and a feel-good message. I’d just written about the Bourne series when indian1969 reminded me that it was about Carlos the Jackal. A little Wikipdia-ing turned up some interesting facts about him, as also the fact that he was well known as a playboy, had tons of fiction written up about him and the latest was a book by a countess called The Well Mannered Assassin.
Why would people glorify an assasin, a serial killer, or any of these sociopathic personalities by immortalising them on the written page. Probably because of the voyeursitic pleasure we get when we read about something chiling, degrading or even perverse. I guess my point is that director Richard Eyre’s and script-writer Philip Merber’s Notes on a Scandal is one such movie - perverse and populated with terrible characters, but sheer fascination along with extremely compelling story telling keep you hooked through out.
Notes on a Scandal is the world as seen through the diary of a London school teacher Barbara Covett(Judi Dench). We are first introduced to Barb as we see her looking at her students through a window thinking
’Here come the local pubescent proles. The future plumbers, shop assistants, and doubtless the odd terrorist too. In the old days, we confiscated cigarettes and wnk mags. Now it’s knives and crack cocaine. And they call it progress*.’
and are immediately drawn into the world inhabited by Barb - acerbic, compelling, lonely, and ultimately selfish, vicious and delusional. It’s the start of a new term at school and Mrs. Sheba Hart(Cate Blanchett) has just joined as the new art teacher. Barb an old battle-axe, is looked upon with respect by her students, who obey her instantly because they are scard of her. The same cannot be said for Sheba who is unlike the other teachers, she’s pretty, comes form a privileged background, is extremely friendly and/or flirty with the rest given the gender.
Barb and Sheba strike up a friendship, where Sheba casts Barb in the role of parent-confessor while Barb has other thoughts entirely.’She’s the one I have waited for’, she tells her diary breathlessly. Barb is increasingly taken up with Sheba until she realises, to her extreme shock that Sheba has been engaged in a torrid affair with one of her students - 15 year old Stephen Covey(Andrew Simpson). Barb’s extreme jealousy is manifest in the opportunity she sees in this weakness, to draw Sheba into a relationship with her - she coerces, gives ultimatums and in a fit of extreme rage at what she percieves as Sheba’s betrayal effectively turns her over to the authorities. What follows is a rapid decline into the sordid, where the lives of everyone involved, Barbara, Stephen, Sheba, her husband Richard(Bill Nighy) and children Polly and Ben are affected by the tragic repercussions of these acts.
Judi Dench as Barbara Covett is plain brilliant. She brings Barb’s internal, extremely lonely, sexually confused and frsutrated world to light instantly. I cant remember the last time I watched a movie where the protagonist was so instantly unlikeable, but Barb’s acid tongue, her pessimistic and mean observations and general demeanour coupled with Dench’s brilliant portrayal all bring this together. Her loneliness is brought about in a subtle scene, where excited at the prospect of being invited over to Sheba’s for lunch, she shops, get her hair done’because one must make an effort, all the while seeming not to’, to have her little bubble burst by Sheba’s teenager.
What gets very uncomfortable is when we, through Barbara’s voice-overs and the times when the camera catches her loooking upon the pretty, blonde Sheba with fascination even while Sheba is blissfully unaware of Dench’s true feelings towards her and gets sucked into a closer friendship with her. It’s almost a cat and mouse game with Sheba being the ultimate reward.
Cate Blanchett as Sheba is wonderful and looks gorgeous. She plays the self-involved and slightly disassociated Sheba to perfection, creating a character who enthralls most people she comes into contact with. However, neither of these characters emerge likeable even at the end. Barb continues her manipulations even after Sheba and Sheba is sorry only because her earlier life has been disrupted with so much havoc. Sheba has had a rough life for someone who is pretty privileged, being married to a much older man, played with sensitivity by an amazing Nighy, having a child with Down’s syndrome, and the recent death of a father who she was extremely close to so it almost seems like she looks upon this as something she was entitled to, being penitent only about the fact that she was caught. At the end we pity everyone involved, Sheba for her weaknesses, Richard for the situation he’s in, Stephen for being sexually manipulated and Barbara who is still as selfish, confused, lost and probably maniacal as at the beginning.
I did like everything about the movie, the cast, the extremely involving, biting screenplay and the beautifully shot sequences all at diametric odds with what’s happening to the lives of the characters. Watch when in the mood for some well-made, interesting, psychological drama.