Say Yes to Notes
After being pretty much out of commission for the first two weeks of 2007 due to a fucking nasty (not to mention stubborn) flu bug, I couldn’t wait to get to a movie theater once I started feeling better.
Granted I had been to a number of films leading up to the chaotic holiday season in late December, there were still some which I had yet to see, and three in particular had piqued my curiosity: Children of Men, Blood Diamond, and Notes on a Scandal. Let’s see, sexy Clive Owen, studly Leo DiCaprio, or Dame Judi Dench & Cate Blanchett? Ladies first…
I first saw the trailer to Notes on a Scandal a few months ago and was riveted by what I saw: a deliciously bitchy and scheming Judi Dench, a troubled and vulnerable Cate Blanchett, a naughty secret with the power to destroy lives at the core of the film’s storyline. Yum. At the time, I thought to myself, “If this movie is half as good as its trailer, then I’ll not leave the theater disappointed”. And I didn’t. Far from it; aside from being well acted and entertaining, Notes on a Scandal holds huge appeal for the gay men in its audience. Not so much lesbians, I’m thinking.
Dench, all bad hair and perpetual scowl, is captivating as a school teacher looking for love in all the wrong places (ie: with her female colleagues) and willing to do whatever it takes to get what she so desperately wants (ie: a loving companion). Blanchett has an equally meaty role as the new teacher at school who gets it on with one of her male students and whom Dench strategically befriends (and ultimately betrays) as a result of discovering Blanchett’s 15 year old (as in his age) secret.
What makes Notes on a Scandal appealing to fags is the high (without being camp) drama, which includes Philip Glass’ (The Hours) original score, the wonderfully bitchy lines Dench gets to deliver, and Blanchett’s futile struggle to resist the charms of her horny student (the extremely well-cast Andrew Simpson, who is gratefully not 15 in real life but in fact 18, which makes it okay for me to think he’s kind of hot, right?—ha ha).
It’s no wonder that Academy Award winners Dench and Blanchett were both nominated for Golden Globes, as well as screenwriter Patrick Marber. Don’t be surprised if all three get nods from Oscar once those nominations are revealed in the next little while. This Scandal is practically note perfect.
Cheers!
S.R.
