Monday, February 12, 2007
Notes on a Scandal
I have a theory that Hollywood defines "great acting" as yelling a great deal with a British accent. In that sense, this movie deserves all the praise it has received, for it does in fact contain a lot of yelling by British people. If you enjoy that sort of thing, you should definitely see it.On the other hand, I found that if you filtered out the accents, this movie was not that great. The plot was pretty heavily telegraphed. There was no point at which I was left wondering what was going to happen next.
In brief: Judi Dench is a lonely old spinster / battleaxe teacher at an inner-city British school. Cate Blanchett is an enchanting art teacher who takes a job at the school and promptly becomes involved in a very messy and dangerous sex scandal. Dench's conniving character soon tries to manipulate the situation to her own advantage. When events go awry, much British shouting breaks out.
I think what disappointed me most with this film is that the lead actors played so much to type. Judi Dench played a Judi Dench character. Cate Blanchett plays Cate Blanchett.
There were two really good performances in the supporting cast. Bill Nighy, who plays Blanchett's much older and long-suffering husband, manages to carry off his role with both panache and subtlety. Likewise, veteran character actor Philip Davis manages just the right dash of humour as the horny-goof fellow teacher who has a crush on Blanchett.
Still and all, for all its weaknesses, the movie has a message. It tells us that lonely spinsters are probably old lesbians and that old lesbians are generally evil. That's a message that we don't hear very often in this day and age. Should we hear it more often? You be the judge.
posted by Mentok @ 12:35 PM,
