Judi Dench

Cate Blanchett

Bill Nighy

Andrew Simpson

Phil Davis

Michael Maloney

Juno Temple

Max Lewis

Joanna Scanlan

Julia McKenzie

Shaun Parkes

Tom Georgeson

Emma Kennedy

Syreeta Kumar

Wendy Nottingham

Tameka Empson

Leon Skinner

Debra Gillett

Barry McCarthy

Adrian Scarborough

Jill Baker

Diana Berriman

Alice Bird

Benedict Taylor

Miranda Pleasence

Jonathan Speer

Stephen Kennedy

Derbhle Crotty

Catherine Drew

Anne-Marie Duff

Kevin Hudson

Gabrielle Brooks

Scott Rudin

Tim Hatley

John Bloom

Robert Fox

Redmond Morris

Philip Glass

Chris Menges

Caroline Smith

Maggie Lunn

Richard Eyre

Antonia Van Drimmelen

Shaheen Baig

Patrick Marber

Zoë Heller

Nadia Stacey

Mark Raggett

Cian O'Clery

Therese Hvattum

Jay Weeks

Stephen McDonald

Philip Ball

Robin Thistlethwaite

Mark Milsome

Dennis Watson

Hattie Dalton

Simon Hutchings

Ian Bee

Amanda Waddington

Sarah Richardson

Lisa Westcott

Gary Hymns

Polly Fletcher

Dan Hillsdon

Vandra Howard

Eamonn Fitzgerald

Diana Dill

James P. Queen

Tarn Harper

Catherine Byrne

Jason Bennett

Danny Roman

Jayne Buxton

Helen Johnson

Maxie McDonald

Heidi Gower

Neil Dickson

Paul Bond

Nathan Kelly

Eamonn Hughes

David Otzen

Thomas Elgood

Iggy Ellis

Jemma Kearney

Jason Ribikoff

Charlie Waller

Eric Strausser

Jim Greenhorn

Richard Hill

Russell Lodge

Vanraaj Padhaal

Nwachukwu Aghanya

Allison Wyldeck

Jane Leonard

Gary Birmingham

Lee Dichter

Ben Wilson

Holly Pullinger

Helen Walker

Gavin Walters

Mark Thomas

Collette Appleby

Joan Washington

Jonathan Wells

Polly Duval

Lucy Eyre

Keziah Barton-White

Kate Morath

Amanda Stevens

Michael Diliberti

Marie Sayej

Neil Murrum

Peter Watson

Jimmy Harris

Martin Czembor

Harriet Orman

Kem White

Francesca Castellano

Stephen Conway

Paul Bowring

Rachel Neale

Martin Harrison

Lee Robertson

Dan Erstad

Rebecca Lafford

Ben Wilkinson

Steve Blythe

Barney Miller

Drama

Romance

Notes on a Scandal

Fox Searchlight Pictures

DNA Films

UK Film Council

BBC Film

Scott Rudin Productions

Robert Fox Productions

Ingenious Media

United Kingdom

United States of America

This is one of those films like a great pasta dish where everything is just right but somehow you still don't feel the restaurant is justified charging $21.95 for a plate of noodles and tomato sauce. The direction is top notch, Cate Blanchett as Sheba Hart is great and Bill Nighy supporting just works. As much as I usually adore Judi 
Dench's acting, I thought she was a little too one-dimensional in this role. But given her choice, she executed the role with the usual Dench precision.

This is a twisted love triangle story with very real characters. If you're the kind that picks up the dirt rags in the checkout line at the supermarket, you'll probably love the story. I gave it a 7 on my scale. It won't blow you away, but you won't feel like you've wasted your time either.

Filipe Manuel Neto

**Lust, loneliness and bitterness in an engaging film with two great actresses.**

I was very impressed with this film, which combines two huge and very talented actresses and a script full of tension and very well developed. It's not something new or original, and there are a lot of relatively tense films that are set in a school environment. I can quote one that I saw recently, and that I remembered while watching this film: “The Children’s Hour”. Alright, the movie is about a hypothetical lesbian relationship between teachers, it's a different kind of scandal than what we have in this movie, but somehow it came to my mind. It is not an award-winning film, but it was nominated for two BAFTA, three Globes and four Oscars. Moreover, it was a competitive year, with several great films competing.

The script is very loosely based on a real case in which a female teacher had a sexual affair with a minor student. The situation is scabrous and criminal, despite the fact that it is also a type of frequent sexual fantasy to be found. However, the film is not about that, but about the tortuous relationship between the young teacher and an older colleague, who discovers the secret. Lonely, bitter, critical, psychologically unstable, with serious problems relating to other people and, eventually, a strongly repressed lesbian, the elderly woman creates an abusive relationship where she subjugates and blackmails her supposed friend, mercilessly manipulating her to obtain almost exclusivity of your attention.

In addition to a really good story, the film has an excellent cast and two great actresses who do a superb job. Judi Dench deserves a standing ovation for the work she leaves in this film: in addition to the sarcastic, almost cruel way in which she narrates the story, the actress was huge and impressive in the way she brought the character to life and played opposite Cate Blanchett. This one, in turn, was also very good, and does an equally good job, but it does not manage to have the magnetism of Dench. The two characters are also very different: Blanchett has on her hands a softer, more one-dimensional, less complex character than Dench, who is given more challenging, more complicated material, and a character who is really challenging to play convincingly. Despite being young, and having a minor role in the film, I also enjoyed Andrew Simpson's contribution.

Technically, it is a discreet film, with excellent cinematography, with dark notes of great skill, which help to thicken the tense environment in which the film develops. With good sets and costumes, but within the predictable, and a relatively good soundtrack that was composed by Phillip Glass (not as good as the one he made in other films, however), the film is discreet, but competent, and gives us excellent production values.