December 24, 2008.

two needy women .

Rating: 4
This is a great film and is somewhat of a cautionary tale about two women who are emotionally needy. One woman is a veteran school teacher who commands respect from both the staff at the school and the students. The other is a new school teacher who is extremely attractive, but her looks are a contrast to how things are going in her personal/home life. The former of the two is single, approaching retirment and the only friend she had in her life before meeting the new teacher was her cat. The latter of the two is married to a man old enough to be her father and has two children. One of her kids has Down's Syndrome and the other is a rebellious teen.

The older teacher finds more than she bargained for in the new teacher... she is not only a friend to her, but someone who knows a deep dark secret about her. This secret is the scandel referred to in the title. The story is not just about the scandel, but about how two emotionally needy women deal with things. The older teacher keeps a diary wrtiting about others and tends to be very critical of the people she writes about. She seems to be a person who loves to observe the drama in others lives as if it's an exciting movie or novel. It became clear that all she wants is to be in love and loved by someone. The younger teacher wanted to be loved in a way she was not getting from her husband and family. Therefore, it was very easy for her to bond to a pubescent boy. This ofcourse leads to all kinds of unforseen problems.

December 06, 2008.

Notes on a scandal.

Rating: 4
The service from this seller was great, the movie itself, not so much. I guess I'm just not big on English films!

December 22, 2008.

Melodramatic, not a great film but fun to watch.

Rating: 3
This film was fun to watch but is so melodramatic and soap operaish I couldn't take it seriously. The situation (Cate Blachett having an affair with a student and being pursued by lesbian Judi Dench) is great material but what happened to British understatement? Instead, we get fights, tantrums, screaming matches, a dead cat, and mascara dripping down Blachett's face like a clown. The fights were worthy of Jerry Springer on a bad day. I thought soap suds would come of the DVD player after I've played it. Judi Dench and Cate Blachett are great, the dialogue is poignant (the quiet scenes are the best, i.e., Dench's speech about solitude). What a pity it was overshadowed by the loud historics demanded by the director/screenplay. The worst scene was when, after applying ghoulish black mascara, Cate Blachett blows up at Judi Dench after reading her diary and storms out into the crowd of reporters, screaming her head off. Then there's the scene where Blachett's husband discovers the affair and literally seems to be tearing his hair out. In another scene, the boy's mother comes into Blachett's house, and without a word, punches her! After awhile, I was too exhausted watching the historics of this film. Subtlety, anyone? This could have been a great film, if the filmmakers had trusted that the audience would have gotten the seriousness of the situation, without thrusting everything in our faces.

December 06, 2008.

Taut, suspenseful and well done.

Rating: 4
Cate Blanchett plays an art teacher (Sheba) who inexplicably has a dalliance with a 15-year old student. Older faculty member Barbara Covett (Judi Dench) becomes aware of the affair and uses it as implied blackmail material to maneuver a close relationship.

Covett is an aging spinster, tormented by loneliness and carrying on an active interior life through her compulsive diary entries. When the affair is finally exposed, the consequences rip apart multiple relationships and set the stage for a disturbing pattern.

Judi Dench gives an absolutely devastating performance as spinster Covett. Sans makeup and with vice-over narration, Covett is a character that repulses and fascinates, even evoking some sympathy in her desperate search for human relationships.

Very good movie!

December 23, 2008.

Very disturbing.

Rating: 1
I love Judi Dench, but need to stick to movies like "Cranford" when I want to see her, I guess. This movie is very disturbing. Only one person seems to have a bit of moral character and that person is Sheba's husband, who reacts with understandable and justifiable rage when he learns of Sheba's affair (not to mention the touching scenes of him with his and Sheba's Downs Syndrome son). I have learned my lesson about R rated movies. In this film, the gory details are graphically shown--sexual scenes between Sheba and a 15 year old boy, the same boy using aggressive, vile sexual language, a very violent scene where Sheba is beaten by another woman. We even get to see Sheba sitting on a toilet and then wiping her butt! Now what did that add to the story? It also appeared that Sheba's 13 or 14 year old daughter is sexually active. When Barbara comes over for brunch, the dad says to the daughter "he could have stayed" which implied that the boyfriend had spent the night. In another scene, Sheba pulls something up off the floor in her daughter's room and hands it to her daughter with a smile--I'm not certain, but were those boxer shorts? How I wish that we could have a smart, suspenseful thriller with great acting--and the acting is good in this movie--without feeling like you're in a cesspool with the characters.