Take Note and Enjoy

After weeks of anticipation, I finally saw Notes on a Scandal over the weekend. I almost didn’t, I’ll have you know, because I was laughing so hard at the fact that Britney Spears has parted with her hair on her road toward Total Has-Beenville.

At least her head now matches her…you know. (Oh, no, I di’n’t.)

Get some help, or else you really won’t be oops, doing it again. And people still want you to. (Some people, anyway.)

What the frak was she thinking, right? Who knows – who cares – but you can ask the same about Cate Blanchett’s character in Notes on a Scandal. She plays the adulterous and reckless Sheba Hart, an art teacher who embarks on an illicit affair with one of her young students, in this Richard Eyre-directed film.

Written for the screen by Patrick Marber, the film also stars the magnificent Judi Dench as Barbara Covett, the obsessively manipulative keeper of Sheba’s secret.

As I expected, I found Notes on a Scandal to be a rich theatrical experience (perhaps a little too theatrical). Marber’s writing was particularly on point (a stage writer as well, he has a knack for language that is enviable). Both Barbara and Sheba were knowingly drawn, their respective ruthlessness and naïveté brought to life for you entertainment. And the story moved along at a quietly urgent pace, the inevitable a-comin’.

It’s always fun to be able to walk in an out of such a dense setting, you know, however intriguing and voyeuristic it is to see someone toy with someone else the way Barbara does with Sheba.

That’s the difference between (well-done) works of fiction, such as this film, and the all-too-real lives of celebrities. Seeing Britney Spears toy with her career and well-being the way she has recently hasn’t been entertaining – it’s been rather tiresome, actually. Seeing Sheba Hart do so merits that you ask what the frak she was thinking – and that you try and make some sense out it.

My Rating ***1/2

Photo: Fox Searchlight Pictures.