DVD Release Date:  April 17, 2007
Theatrical Release Date:  December 27, 2006 (limited)
Rating:  R (for language and some aberrant sexual behavior)
Genre:  Drama
Run Time:  98 min.
Director:  Richard Eyre
Actors:  Cate Blanchett, Judi Dench, Bill Nighy, Andrew Simpson, Phil Davis, Juno Temple, Max Lewis

“We are bound by the secrets we share,” writes one of the characters in this drama, which has more than a few echoes of the scandal between Mary Kay Letourneau and her student lover.  It may be sordid, but this sort of outrage does happen.  The only question is, do you want to watch?  Actually, you might be surprised at the answer.

Dame Judi Dench plays Barbara Covett, a cranky fixture at a London public school who becomes entranced by Sheba Hart (Cate Blanchett), the beautiful new art teacher.  Married to an older professor (Bill Nighy), Sheba is the mother of a surly teenage daughter (Juno Temple) and a boy with Down’s Syndrome (Max Lewis).  Fortunately, she’s inherited enough money – along with a beautiful home – to live without teaching.  But Sheba is searching for meaning, and opens up to Barbara, who journals obsessively about her, revealing more than a friendly interest in this exotic colleague.

After Barbara catches Sheba in a compromising situation with Stephen, a fifteen-year-old, working class student (Andrew Simpson), she is furious, but insists Sheba tell her everything.  “I hadn’t been pursued like this in years,” Sheba confesses.  “I knew it was wrong and immoral and completely ridiculous, but I just allowed it to happen. … It was easy – like having another drink, when you know you shouldn’t.”

Barbara quickly realizes that she can use this secret to her advantage.  Information, after all, is power – and the lonely Barbara needs all the leverage she can get to grow closer to Sheba.  As the older woman’s manipulations mount, however – and her fantasies about Sheba appear to creep closer and closer -- the precarious balance of all their lives is about to be shattered.

Adapted from the 2003 novel "What Was She Thinking?” by Zoë Heller, “Notes on a Scandal” is about loneliness and how, unchecked, it can easily transforms into fixation and even obsession.  The script was written by Patrick Marber, who also penned the twisted yet critically acclaimed “Closer” (which starred Julia Roberts, Jude Law and Clive Owens).  Like “Closer,” “Notes on a Scandal” is also based upon a disturbing image of humanity and sexuality and is meant to titillate, even as it prompts us to shake our heads in disgust.  Likewise, it strips back the layers of the class system in England, showing us what happens when social norms are contravened.