delivers an electrifying performance as an obsessive lesbian who sets her sights on fellow teacher Cate Blanchett .about film:
When upper middle class Sheba Hart (Blanchett) joins a working-class public school as an art teacher, she’s far too soft to be taken seriously by rowdy teenage students and too pretty not to raise their testosterone levels.
Poker-faced history teacher Barbara Covett (Dench) keeps a close eye on her and the two become friends after Barbara helps quell a near classroom riot Sheba had lost control of.
Sheba is bored of her marriage to the much older Richard (Bill Nighy) and stifled by family life, and quickly embarks on an affair with 15-year old pupil Steven Connelly (Andrew Simpson). Catching the couple during one of their trysts Barbara promises to keep the affair a secret, but she’s a friend in wolf’s clothing and uses Sheba’s indiscretion to insinuate herself into her family home.
"Notes on a Scandal"is a beautifully subtle film offering a unique type of creepiness thanks to Dench’s performance. She keepsakes a strand of Sheba’s hair that glides down onto her lap after Sheba twiddles with her ringlets. When Sheba becomes upset, Barbara clasps her hand in consolation – a gesture of kindness that could never be mistaken for seduction unless you had access to Barbara’s inner thoughts, like the audience.
It doesn’t shy away from Barbara’s sexuality either despite the word ‘lesbian’ never being uttered during the film. Barbara won’t even admit it to herself, but we all know what she means when she says she wants to be Sheba’s ‘friend’.
Dench’s performance deserves her Oscar nomination!
