Notes on a Scandal

First, a quick note: The title to yesterday's post is actually the title to a song from the first act of "The Mikado" by Gilbert & Sullivan. It is also known as "The List Song" since it has to do with a list of people (They'd none of them be missed) that Ko-Ko feels we could do without. Eric Idle was in a very good version from 1987 that has recently been released on dvd. Thanks - just thought you should know. Now, back to our regularly scheduled programming:

Originally, my movie choice for the day was "Blood and Chocolate." I felt that my recent excursions to the theater had been for rather dark and somewhat depressing stories, however good, and I was fairly sure that "B & C" would be bad, but in a fun way, and I could laugh at it's badness and enjoy the unexpected good parts. However, that was before I knew that "Notes on a Scandal" would be playing this weekend, making it the first weekend that "Notes" was in this area (it opened in December) and since I absolutely wanted to see it, I changed my plans.

Really glad I changed my plans. Cate Blanchett is Sheba, the new (and young) art teacher and Judi Dench is Barbara Covett, the spinster history teacher who becomes her friend. The basic story is that Sheba begins an illicit affair and Barbara, being the friend that she is, becomes the keeper of the secret.

I thoroughly enjoyed this film. Cate Blanchett was, as usual, very good as was Bill Nighy (who killed me as Shaun's father in "Shaun of the Dead"), but Judi Dench was by far the standout performer in this film; she practically owns every scene she's in and I would have to credit her subtlety as the primary reason. However, that's just my opinion and if you do see it, I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.