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 Fatal Attraction, 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), Notes on a Scandal is a compelling tour-de-force for its Grade-A cast. --Donald Liebenson

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 clich??. Rather than play it straight, the cast go to pieces with a demonstrative vigour that borders on the hysterical.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.