Notes on a Scandal with Judy Dench and Cate Blanchett

Notes on a Scandal, directed by Richard Eyre, with a intensely rich score by Philip Glass, is a study of human loneliness and the lengths people (in this case women) might go to fill the gaping hole in the heart created by loneliness. Feeling forlorn, however, is not specific to any particular way or period of life: one of the woman consumed by it, Barbara (Judy Dench), is a 60-something single schoolteacher in a North London school, while the other, Sheba (Cate Blanchett), a sensual beauty of 40, is a seemingly contented married woman and mother of two young teens. and colleague of Barbara at the school. But both of them ache for a kind of human touch and intimacy that simply isn't satisfied with a brief hug, a charming conversation or the comraderie of a pleasant family get-together. Buried deep in the heart is a supra-rational need to connect in the fullest way possible with another, to be swept away in a moment of power and passion, to be fused with the well-springs of our being. The ways of connecting, however, often bear little relationship to societally-approved manner of doing so. The sensual beauty becomes intoxicated by the raw sexuality and testosterone-laden energy of a 15 year-old boy; the "spinster" teacher finds herself drawn into the innnocence and naivete of her younger colleague. In each case, however, the intense human longing for domination and control, for submission and pure sexual release, predictably leads to what Shakespeare has best called the "tangled webs we weave," as ultimately, the truth comes out. Shattered shards of relationships and broken human spirits are all that are left after the explosions of passion and manipulations of jealousy. Yet, life goes on, and the movie ends with one chastened woman (Sheba) and one unrepentant one (Barbara) as it dawns on us that this most intense time was only a chapter of life, a mere episode in the larger drama of human life.

Notes on a Scandal--Nuts and Bolts

Barbara Lovett (Judy Dench) is both narrator and lead actress in this drama, set in a working-class school in North London. She has lost all her desire to teach and is filled, near the end of her career, with a mixture of her own passion for precise knowledge and her conclusion that school is that last place a person should be who wants to impart it. The boys at the school are, in her minds, little better than caged animals who have to be treated with firmness and directness. She earns grudging respect from students and colleagues alike, though no one seems able to pierce the testudinous toughness, the scutellate skin, of the jaded teacher. Until the mystery deepens. Sheba Hart (Cate Blanchett, who also with her role as wounded wife in Babel, has put impressive 2006 entries in her vita) is a newly-hired art teacher who seems quite overwhelmed by how to handle the rambunctious energy and conflict which are rife at such a school. Barbara intervenes in a fight between boys that Sheba is unable to control, and Sheba's obvious gratitude toward Barbara for rescuing her from this situation provides the occasion for Barbara gradually to enter into Sheba's life with her mixture of maternal affection and incredibly unfulfilled loneliness. Sheba, always seemingly unaware of or susceptible to the power moves of another, cannot resist the way that Barbara gradually entwines her in her net of deception and jealousy, until Barbara feels she has to "expose" Sheba's own dalliance with a 15 year-old boy at school.

Sheba, on the other hand, is desperately trying to escape an unhappy family life which she never seems to realize is unhappy. She and her professor-husband Richard (Bill Nighy) have a 12 year-old down-syndrome son, who is a bundle of fun but, one could easily imagine, also a millstone around the neck. They also have a daughter who is about 13, swept away by her own love with a boy, unable to extricate herself from her own prison of need. The combination produces a situation where Sheba just has to escape. She can do a little of this through her art studio at home, her place of retreat where she creates and regroups to face the next day. In this state, however, she is incredibly vulnerable to the unremitting and unforgiving energy of passion all around her. What makes her case both interesting and tragic is that she either seems unaware of her burning need for affection or simply unable to ward off the approaches of others who can sense her vulnerability. Unlike the rough shell of Barbara, Sheba seems to have no shell at all; instead of an armadillo-coat which she can gather around herself, she seems as vulnerable as a slug slithering along the ground after a rainstorm. They go "squish" at the slightest pressure.

Conclusion

All of this leads to furtive behavior, breathtaking expressions of passion, attempts to cover one's tracks, ignescent jealousy, power plays, and finally, a fall so hard that one wonders if life can ever recover from it. Judy Dench has certainly given us an Oscar-worthy performance of the chillingly lonely and manipulative older teacher; while Cate Blanchett provides a scary but believable window into the Mary Kay Letourneau-like world of a teacher fascinated with the awkard sexuality of teenage boys. Richard's meltdown, when he finally realizes that his wife is screwing a 15 year-old boy (and that is the right word for it), is one for the ages. Altogether this is a searching film that scintillates with relevance in 2007. We are all the lonely people, whether we keep our faces in a jar by the door or work on a sermon that no one will hear.

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