Common Sense Note
Parents need to know that this adult-targeted drama (which probably won't have much appeal for teens anyway) features mature themes and some sexual imagery. Specifically, a female teacher, Sheba, has sex with her 15-year-old male student, and the footage is fairly explicit (heavy breathing and rolling on ground; the teacher in her bra, kneeling and touching the boy's torso). The movie's other predominant sexual theme concerns a fellow female teacher's crush on Sheba, which inspires amorous dreams and comments in her diary, as well as some social machinations (she betrays a friend, spreads rumors, and judges her peers). Boys fight at school; the teachers fight, too (slapping and pushing). Characters drink beer, wine, and liquor (in a flashback, Sheba drinks beer with the student) and smoke cigarettes. Language includes some 15 uses of "f--k," plus "s--t" and "arse," in addition to some name-calling ("fatty," "pig," "tart," etc.).
Families can talk about relationships between teachers and students. How does Sheba cross the accepted boundaries? How does telling her story from Barbara's perspective affect the film? How might Sheba, Steven, or other characters see events and individuals differently? Does Sheba's life at home affect how you feel about her and what she does? How?
Common Sense Review
Reviewed By: Cynthia Fuchs
A sophisticated look at desire and self-delusion, NOTES ON A SCANDAL combines sly melodrama and sharp wit. Framed by the perspective of history teacher Barbara Covett (Judi Dench), the movie (which is based on the novel What Was She Thinking: Notes on a Scandal by Zoe Heller) follows Barbara's evolving infatuation with a new, younger colleague, art teacher Sheba (Cate Blanchett).
At first, Barbara delights in what she calls their "mutual ability to see through the quotidian awfulness of things." But Barbara also comes to imagine a romance, which she confesses to her diary and then tries to manipulate in her relationship with Sheba. The film begins by setting up Barbara's limited view, which will become the viewer's as well. "People have always trusted me with their secrets," she says in voice-over, as the scene cuts from her lonely figure on a park bench to her diary page. "But who do I trust with mine? You, only you."
As the school year starts, Barbara glowers from a second-floor window, deeming the yard full of students to be "the local pubescent proles, the future lumbers and shop assistants and doubtless the odd terrorist too." Accompanied by Philip Glass' score, Dench is delightfully forbidding here, her demeanor unchanged as the camera picks out Sheba bicycling among the uniformed students, with little sign of the complications that are about to ensue.
Barbara initially calls Sheba a "fey person" ("Is she a sphinx or simply stupid?") and disapproves of her family -- which includes much-older husband Richard (a terrific Bill Nighy), a pouty pubescent stepdaughter, and a charming son with Down Syndrome. Yet Barbara is oddly excited when she learns of Sheba's affair with handsome, fit "special needs" student Steven (Andrew Simpson). Though Sheba knows she's doing wrong, she's seduced by the boy's pursuit of her -- and also weary of the demands built into her life at home and at school. As she tells Barbara, she feels entitled to do a little wrong, because she's always done right. (That said, she confesses that Richard left his previous wife for her.)
Sheba is so self-absorbed that she doesn't notice Barbara's needs until the older woman demands not only that Sheba give up the boy, but also, eventually, her family. Barbara's own observations are both prickly and entertaining; they reveal her own inclinations even when she thinks she's maintaining her distance (on meeting Richard, she tells herself, so very dryly, "A rogue image swam through me: Hubby's pruny old mouth pursed at Sheba's breast").
The film's great trick is that no matter how badly Barbara behaves -- and she does connive with some venom -- she remains "sympathetic" in the sense that she's utterly compelling (a function of Dench's strong performance). She's also strangely endearing and quite blind to herself. The film's finale is both harsh and broadly melodramatic, and so fits Barbara's idea of herself -- deflated perhaps, but never defeated.
Fans might also enjoy the 1961 classic The Children's Hour, The Hours, and Mona Lisa Smile.
Rate It!
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Sexual ContentSheba and Steven appear partly unclothed (most images are discreet or dark, but plain about their sexual acts) in a couple of scenes; some cleavage shots; some kissing; sexual slang, allusions, and references ("wank mags," "porno," "c--t," "t-ts," "dick," "f--k"). A major storyline is one female character's obssessive crush on another. |
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ViolenceFighting between two male students; Steven's mother slaps Sheba; hectic scene with press "thronging" Sheba outside her home (she cries, the camerawork is frantic); Barbara and Sheba fight (slapping, falling into furniture, crying). |
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LanguageAt least 15 uses of "f--k," as well as other language, like "s--t," "hell," "bollocks," "bastard," and sexual slang (including "dick," "t--s," and "c--t"); some name-calling ("fatty," granny," "pig," "tart"), as well as some Britishisms ("wank," "arse," "sod-all"). |
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Social BehaviorA teacher has an affair with her 15-year-old student; an older teacher manipulates the younger teacher -- both betray each another and those around them; both are also self-deluding, though one comes to understand herself more deeply. |
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CommercialismNokia cell phone. |
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Drug/Alcohol/TobaccoCharacters drink (wine and beer) on multiple occasions, sometimes to drunkenness; Barbara smokes cigarettes repeatedly; Steven smokes a few times; a girl (Sheba's stepdaughter) smokes once; reference to "crack cocaine" background characters smoke and drink in bars. |
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