Loneliness is a strange and hollow thing. In Notes on a Scandal, two teachers, one seasoned and manipulative, the other lithe and misguided, deal with a loneliness that is beyond emptying and, at times, beyond comprehension. The dark narrative examines desire, perception and manipulation.
The calculated, obsessive Barbara Covett, a rigid Judi Dench, leads a bland life, recording her searing observations in her diary. Then the new art teacher Sheba Hart (Cate Blanchett) shows up and becomes Barbara’s fascination.
From the first moment Blanchett is on screen, she owns the light. Dench is all tight lips, dusty clothes and creepy airs. Both actresses excel at character roles and truly delve into the darkness of screenwriter Patrick Marber’s words and subtext.
Dench threatens without saying much. Blanchett is wonderfully torn and foolish in her “bourgeoisie Bohemia,” as Barbara describes it. The supporting cast, notably Billy Nighy as Shelba’s older, unknowing husband, make the absurdity of Barbara’s manipulations believable.
Sheba’s dissatisfaction with her life, marriage and motherhood, manifests in a torrid, appalling affair with a 15-year-old male student. As the aptly named Covett and Hart become friends, confidantes, Barbara happens upon Sheba’s secret. Jealous and enraged that Sheba has not confided this, something clicks for Barbara; here is how she can “have” Sheba. Their friendship is all a manipulation.
The desire to keep desires hidden guides the film. Meticulous direction and haunting shadows reveal the twisted psyches of the women. From their clothing to their homes to their modes of transportation, the blatant differences and similarities of the women are established thoroughly.
Eventually, Barbara’s lust and anger force her to report Sheba’s illegal affair. Things fall apart for both women. Through their blind loneliness, they are ruined. Barbara so craves contact that she invents it; Sheba so craves satisfaction that she stumbles into losing her reputation and devoted family.
Notes on a Scandal is a scathing, cynical perspective of how manipulation and ruination are so easy, and of how staying ruined is even easier.