Notes on a Scandal: A-

There comes a point in Richard Eyre's spellbinding psycological thriller Notes on a Scandal where I was literally on the edge of my seat. That doesn't happen often. The tremendous power of the film must be attributed to two things: Patrick Marber's suprisingly excellent script, and the delicious screen duo-turned-adversaries that are Cate Blanchett and Judi Dench.

Sheba Hart (Cate Blanchett) is a newly minted art teacher at a public school in England. Barbara Covett (Judi Dench) is a spinsterly old fixture of the place. Sheba (shockingly!) develops a trist with a 15-year old jock, throwing away her nice comfy family. Barbara (shockingly!) reveals a steely obsession for Sheba that doesn't border on the insane so much as it does the sad (because it is so pitifully obvious that Barbara is a lesbian). Once Barbara has ensnared Sheba in her web, after catching her giving the jock a blo-job, she begins a quite cunning game of how far can I go? with not only Sheba, but with her own sexuality. As buoyed by Marber's toxic wit (although I do wish he'd have given the characters more texture) and director Richard Eyre's strong hand the movie is one of those nasty little things you can't take your eyes off of. It's crafty suspenseful movie making at it's most morbid, dark, pessimistic, and well made.

The performances themselves excel: Cate Blanchett, who has always wielded a sort of sleepy ineffability to me, here turns in a performance of delightful unpredictability. Bill Nighy, who plays her husband, managed to make me laugh and cheer in but one big scene, his only of the picture. But it's Dame Judi that left me breathless. She has tinkered in commanding stage presence and she has done bits of comedy in other things, but here....my oh my. Armed with a voice that could cut glass (she narrates all of the film with the disconnected and perversely depressed voice that only a psycotic could muster) and volcanic intensity, Mrs. Dench does the best job of acting I've seen all year.

Sorry to Helen Mirren and Meryl Streep, but as "Barb" Covett Judi Dench creates the most powerful character on screen this year, and probably the most terrifying. She's got bile in her veins and lonliness in her heart. The beauty of this movie is that it showcases both at every turn and doesn't stop to care that it won't warm your heart in the least, except perhaps at the prospect of such hilarious, riveting filmmaking.