Notes on Notes on a Scandal: Ah! a diarist. I am inclined to instantly like those who share my proclivity to use the written word as a means of reflection. Indeed, narrator Barbara (Judi Dench) seems, at first, one of my brethren: Hard, cynical, disdainful of the “proles” that she lives among but acutely distances herself from. Yet she needs them, not for human companionship, but as fodder to fill the pages of her notebooks.
And oh, the material that Barbara culls from the new art teacher named Sheba (Cate Blanchett). Finally, a colleague who lives up to Barbara’s standards, a “kindred spirit,” even though Sheba is the opposite of Barbara: Young, beautiful, optimistic, kind, and married with children. The stage is set. Enter, the scandal…
Who doesn’t love a good scandal! Certainly Barbara isn’t complaining when she discovers Sheba’s secret. She knowingly blackmails Sheba into becoming a close friend, but seems to forget her own power as Sheba acquiesces to her overtures. And then, delusions. Psychological warfare. Lies. “Don’t you know it’s terribly rude to read someone’s diary?” Oh, yes, I love a good scandal.
