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 Location:  Home » DVD » Drama » Notes On A Scandal [2007]January 8, 2009  
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Notes On A Scandal [2007]
Notes On A Scandal [2007]
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Director: Richard Eyre
Actors: Judi Dench, Cate Blanchett, Tom Georgeson, Michael Maloney, Joanna Scanlan
Studio: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
Category: DVD

List Price: £19.99
Buy New: £3.98
You Save: £16.01 (80%)
Buy New/Used from £3.75

Avg. Customer Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars(49 reviews)
Sales Rank: 942

Format: Anamorphic, Pal
Language: English (Original Language)
Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
Media: DVD
Running Time: 88 minutes
Number Of Items: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.4 x 5.4 x 0.7

EAN: 5039036033350
ASIN: B000PE0JA2

Release Date: June 4, 2007
Theatrical Release Date: February 22, 2007
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days

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Editorial Reviews:

Amazon.co.uk Review
Gold stars to all for this taut psychological thriller based on Zoe Heller's novel that that gets more insidiously twisted as it unfolds. Oscar-nominated for her chilling performance, Dame Judi Dench gives a master class as schoolteacher Barbara Covett, a frumpy, friendless, and flinty spinster who lives with her cat. A formidable presence, Barbara is standoffish with colleagues and not one for students to trifle with (not that they'd dare). Cate Blanchett, also an Oscar nominee and winner of several critics society awards for her impassioned performance, costars as Sheba Hart, the new, overwhelmed art teacher who first becomes enthrall to Barbara after she steps in to help Sheba discipline unruly students. Barbara cultivates a friendship, and insinuates herself into Sheba's chaotic life, which includes her older husband (Bill Nighy), teenage daughter, and a son with Down's syndrome. Then, Barbara catches the reckless Sheba in a compromising position with a 15-year-old student (Andrew Simpson). Seizing her opportunity, the calculating Barbara does not turn her in. Rather, she wants to "help" her. "She's the one I've been waiting for," she writes in the journals she meticulously keeps, and which provide, in voiceover, her corrosive commentary. This all sounds very IFatal Attraction/I, but no boiling rabbits, please; we're British. Philip Glass's Oscar-nominated score accentuates the growing menace. Though there is little in these characters to admire, (one would think GLAAD would have something to say about the predatory turn Barbara's character takes), INotes on a Scandal/I is a compelling tour-de-force for its Grade-A cast. I--Donald Liebenson/I


Customer Reviews:   Read 44 more reviews...

4 out of 5 stars Notes on 'Notes On A Scandal'   August 17, 2008
  1 out of 1 found this review helpful

I resisted seeing - or indeed even reading about - `Notes on a Scandal', as I had wrongly assumed it was the kind of tasteful, Oscar-baiting `Quality British Drama' that I loathe. With Cate Blanchette in tow, I thought I could smell theatre-honed, BAFTA-approved method acting a mile off. In fact, thematically and stylistically, it is nothing of the kind. Tellingly made by theatre director Richard Eyre, it is so cynical at heart that it comes across more like a satirical play than a drama. I don't know the novel (by Zoe Heller) this film was based on, but there is a misanthropic streak to `Notes on a Scandal' at odds with the kind of literary adaptation often served up by the British film industry. Films about obsessive admirers and jilted lovers are very much part of cinematic tradition (Fatal Attraction, Single White Female, etc.), but few are told from the perspective of the `villain'. `Notes on a Scandal' is, and Judi Dench plays the unreliable narrator with a glint in her eye so calculating that you expect her to wink at the camera at any moment. If there is a satirical tone to the film, then, it is in the acknowledgement that the basic conceit is a cinematic cliche. Rather than play it straight, the cast go to pieces with a demonstrative vigour that borders on the hysterical.br /br /Surprising then, that I tune in to see a drama and find myself watching a cynical black comedy. The characters, and their acts of transgression, are portrayed with a squeamish absence of sympathy. So while it is pretty unmoving, it is certainly provocative. In tone it is nearer to Mike Nichols' viscous relationship drama `Closer' than the subtler manipulations of, say, `The Talented Mr Ripley'. I also consider myself fairly immune to Judi Dench, and don't buy into the modern wisdom that she is Britain's foremost character actor: "Dench plays wily old battleaxe shocker!" No, this role looked like it had been left out for her like a pair of royal slippers. However, I should have guessed, with Bill Nighy in the cast, that the film would not be entirely earnest. Nighy, who also features in the supporting cast of another (underrated) film about obsession - a 2004 adaptation of Ian McEwan's `Enduring Love' - has a gently ironic face which is impossible to take seriously. Like `Enduring Love', the complacent moneyed London lives of their protagonists are brutally upended, but the makers of `Notes on a Scandal' seem to have indulged themselves with a devilishly generous measure of shardenfreude. A lean 88-minutes, a less frenzied (less theatrical?) approach, might have given this film greater emotional weight, but it's an engaging film nonetheless.


1 out of 5 stars A sordid and emotionally dishonest film   June 22, 2008
  2 out of 6 found this review helpful

I found this film sordid,depressing,emotionally dishonest and odious. Apart from Polly (Juno Temple, excellent as usual) and Max Lewis as her brother Ben, no-one in the film is likeable; everyone else is selfish, appetitic and ultimately boring. It is not believable that Cate Blanchett's character would fall for a totally charmless 15-year-old yobbo whose idea of romance is sending her obscene texts. As for Judy Dench's character Barbara, ultimately she is just a cliched lonely spinster with dark motives, general creepiness, and covert lesbian tendencies. br /br /I cannot understand why anyone would want to make this film. There is next to nothing redeeming about it and it does not illuminate anything. 'The Killing of Sister George' is a much better film on a roughly similar theme, and Beryl Reid's character wins our sympathy,which Barbara never does.br /br /A big disappointment, with three actors - Judy Dench, Cata Blanchett and Bill Nighy, who are absolutely wonderful at their best and should have known better than to be in this.


4 out of 5 stars Notes on a scandal   May 9, 2008
As expected with a cast of Judi Dench and Cate Blanchet, very easy film to watch. The film kept your attention throughout. Would recommend to all.


3 out of 5 stars Not brilliant and not bad!   April 3, 2008
Film was ok. Cate Blanchet and Judy Dench excellent but the Philip Glass score was abysmal and far too loud. I turned off the surround sound and it was still too loud. Real enjoyment of the film was ruined.


2 out of 5 stars Boring   March 31, 2008
  0 out of 1 found this review helpful

I just found this film boring. Judi Dench is supposed to be a sinister evil spinster but I just found the film progressed too slowly. I simply lost patience before we even reached the half way mark.

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