Dame Judi Dench is so good she’s positively repugnant as Barbara Covett, a manipulative psychopath who is a sexual predator. She does a remarkable job morphing from the elegant, intelligent characters Dame Judi frequently plays into a raging vindictive school marm seeking to enslave the object of her passions.
In this case, it’s an adulterous arts teacher called Sheba played by Cate Blanchett who has made two mistakes – having an affair with a fifteen-year-old student and being so negligent as to drop her defenses, allowing Covett to catch her red-handed.
Covett’s life is quietly bitter and uneventful, her stinging witticisms are not shared with her fellow teachers – she reserves them for her journals. She treats her colleagues with haughty disdain. As for her students. ‘Here they come now, the future mechanics, shop clerks and probably a terrorist or two’. She has no use for them – her love is for her cat.
Then one day, in walks a young and vibrant new teacher, Sheba, beautiful, serene and instantly liked by the staff and students, just the kind of person Covett despises. But when Sheba shows her common courtesy, Covett falls into a blind, submissive passion.
She catches Sheba in the act with a teenaged student, and is overcome with fury. It’s not clear whether she’s angry because Sheba has broken the teacher student taboo, or whether she imagines in her fevered imagination, that Sheba is unfaithful to her.
Covett threatens to report her. Sheba begs her not to, suggesting friendship will be her reward. Sheba genuinely likes Covett, but has the sense to make the best of a dicey position. She must keep Covett happy and quiet
Covett soon ingratiates her way into Sheba’s family life, disapproving of her husband and the family’s casual lifestyle and overt affection, but too addled to care.
Her strict schoolteacher persona softens, and life seems worth living again, but as smart as she is, she ignores the self-evident fact that a relationship built on deceit is doomed.
Sheba and Covett begin a prisoner/warden type friendship. They have something in common that binds them together. They are both sexual predators.
Wonderful performances by talented actors should raise the level of this film, The director has tackled difficult subjects before from cannibalism to dementia (‘Iris,’ starring Dench) and done pretty well.
This seems a logical step!
“Notes” is difficult to take – it is a kind of emotional horror story, a psychopath terrorizing a weak and naive victim. Our repugnance made more acute by Dench’s powerful, masterful performance.
The film is relentless – you’ll find yourself staring at the screen jaw on the floor, experiencing total repugnance. It’s not Covett’s gayness – hers could be any sexual orientation - it’s the sad, emotional heaving of a stalker who has misunderstood.
The feeling lingers, which is ample proof of the film’s power.
The story is an evil homage to the teleplay ‘Come Back, Little Sheba’, in which an obsessive woman waits in vain for her cat to come home, years after it disappeared.
Covett waits for her victims to come to their senses and return to her.
Philip Glass’ wonderful score dazzles.
Notes on a Scandal
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