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Dom Robinson reviews
- Cert:
- Cat.no: 3249801000
- Running time: 92 minutes
- Year: 2006
- Pressing: 2007
- Region(s): 2, PAL
- Chapters: 20 plus extras
- Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
- Languages: English
- Subtitles: English for the hearing-impaired, English commentary
- Widescreen: 1.85:1
- 16:9-Enhanced: Yes
- Macrovision: Yes
- Disc Format: DVD 9
- Price: £19.99
- Extras: Director’s Commentary, Audio Descriptive track, Featurettes, Webisodes, Theatrical trailer
Director:
- Richard Eyre
(Iris, Loose Connections, Notes on a Scandal, The Other Man, The Ploughman’s Lunch, Stage Beauty, TV: The Absence of War, Play for Today, Rockaby, Suddenly Last Summer)
Producers:
- Robert Fox, Andrew Macdonald, Allon Reich and Scott Rudin
Screenplay:
- Patrick Marber (based on the novel by Zoe Heller)
Music:
- Philip Glass
Cast:
- Barbara Covett: Judi Dench
Sheba Hart: Cate Blanchett
Richard Hart: Bill Nighy
Steven Connolly: Andrew Simpson
Brian Bangs: Phil Davis
Sue Hodge: Joanna Scanlan
Sandy Pabblem: Michael Maloney
Bill Rumer: Shaun Parkes
Linda: Emma Kennedy
Ted Mawson: Tom Georgeson
Polly Hart: Juno Temple
Ben Hart: Max Lewis
Marjorie: Julia McKenzie
Annabel: Anne-Marie Duff
The one thing I didn’t know about Notes on a Scandal before watching it, was the nature of the scandal.
Often this is something completely unavoidable when a film is promoted all over the place, so I did well to avoid that.
Thus, as we start the film at the beginning of a new term for a secondary school with the headmaster (Michael Maloney) having a meeting with all the teachers to see what suggestions they have to bring to the school and their respective departments. This is a good way to introduce lots of faces to us, although not many of them have more than bit-parts. The key players are Judi Dench as Barbara Covett, a seemingly-arrogant, embittered history teacher, while Cate Blanchett plays Sheba Hart, the new, young, blonde art teacher.
Judi Dench has got the look of the elderly female teacher you remember down to perfection, her character just oozing with obnoxiousness. The latter part of that is shown off perfectly in her running commentary where she treats everything with disdain, the writing for this just wonderful.
It appears at first that Barbara can’t stand Sheba, but it doesn’t take long before she befriends her after sorting out an altercation in her class. In fact, she becomes attracted to her, but Sheba’s got plans of her own as the scandal in the title involves a young schoolboy, and the notes are those written in Barbara’s diary as she jots down every last thought and recollection in her head, hence the commentary. Once Sheba discovers that her new friend knows, she panics, but Barbara promises not to tell of what she’s been up to, so long that she ends the affair whilst remaining ever in her debt. Problem solved, then, yes? Well… not really, since otherwise there wouldn’t be any point in continuing the film.
It could also be said, for Sheba’s judgement, that the lad she has it off with looks like Glyn from last year’s Big Brother! Who could fancy that? Either way, her children aren’t impressed, made up of a teenage daughter around the same age as Steven, plus a son with Down’s syndrome.
Notes on a Scandal is a brilliant film with fantastic acting from all concerned, the leads fleshed out by Bill Nighy as Sheba’s husband, who’s much older than herself, Andrew Simpson as Sheba’s young sire, Steven, plus support from those playing the teachers, Phil Davis and Joanna Scanlan (who plays Terri in The Thick of It) and Julia McKenzie as Barbara’s sister, all of whom get a few minutes of screen time apiece, plus blink-and-you’ll-miss-them appearances from Emma Kennedy and Tom Georgeson.
As an addition, there’s a scene involving someone throwing up into a school toilet (I won’t say who), and it made me think that I’m sure any such convenience would be far cleaner than that. It looked like a prop from Trainspotting about the worst toilet in Scotland!
The only thing that does this film a disservice is that you can’t really take it all seriously, so some scenes that involve shouting just end up looking like a comic farce. Also, it doesn’t help that some scenes play out precisely as you’d expect in real life so there’s no tension there when there should be some, not that this badly affects the film as a whole.
That said, Notes on a Scandal couldn’t ask for a more perfect ending – something so severely lacking in most films today.
The film is presented in the original 1.85:1 theatrical ratio and is anamorphic with no problems, but at no point does it particularly dazzle you. Philip Glass’ score is effervescent as it mirrors the ups and downs in the characters’ lives, particularly of those between Barbara and Sheba, so this is a rare time when I’ve given high marks for sound to a drama film where you don’t expect to have surround-sound moments. The rest of the time, the DD5.1 sound is used mainly, and effectively, for ambience.
The extras are not plentiful:
- Featurettes (19:39): Three here, the first two presented in 4:3 and all with English subtitles. The first, The Story of Two Obsessions (12:21), has all the key cast and crew members talking about how there’s a lot more to the film than you first think – but to go into more detail would be to spoil the plot, so I won’t. Those commenting on the movie includes screenwriter Patrick Marber, who I remember onscreen in, amongst other things, Knowing Me Knowing You with Alan Partridge.
Then comes Behind the Scenes (5:11) which just continues this chat-to-camera and doesn’t give any of the usual ‘behind the scenes’ stuff you’d normally expect. Finally a brief one, In Character with Cate Blanchett (2:07), the interview bit being shot in 16:9 letterbox but is presented within a 4:3 frame so the ‘Fox Movie Channel’ logo overlaps the letterbox image into the black bar at the bottom of the screen. About the content, though? It’s not much to bother with – too short to have any real value.
- Webisodes (14:00): Eight of these short pieces, or ‘Webisodes’ – so-called because they would have been made to be uploaded online for viewing during the production – presented in 4:3 they all mix film clips with chat from the cast and crew, a lot of which has been covered before in the featurettes, but it’s nice to have these for completion, since once the film and the website’s been and gone, these will still remain on the DVD.
- Theatrical trailer (2:25): Presented in letterbox 1.85:1, don’t watch it until you’ve seen the film as it contains spoilers.
- Director’s Commentary: from Richard Eyre.
Before the film starts there are letterboxed trailers for The Last King of Scotland, A Good Year, The Namesake, Sunshine and, for some reason, a bloody advert for Maltesers! What’s wrong with the Special Features section for the trailers? (Forget the advert – what a waste of time. If people buy a DVD they shouldn’t have that thrust at them)
The DVD menus are static and silent, there are subtitles in English for the hearing-impaired and there’s a decent amount of chapters with 20 spread throughout the 88-minute running time.
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS
OVERALL 
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.