Notes on a Scandal

Hooollllly Crappers!! Have I got the movie for you sick people out there.

Ever watch a movie, and as you're walking out of the theater, you have this sick, creepy feeling that just lingers and bothers you the entire drive home?

When I was going to church, I remember watching the movie "Seven" and walking out of the theater all overwhelmed with guilt like this pure form of evil had somehow penetrated my defenses and made it's way into my precious soul and immaculate mind. I had fallen to temptation. I was somehow attracted to this movie even though it was blatantly gruesome with it's graphic violence, blood, and gore. I really felt sick to my stomach. Now, of course, it's one of my favorite movies of all time, but at the time, it really kind of disturbed me.

Flash forward to now. I kinda had that same nauseous feeling about Notes on a Scandal. It's not that the movie was bloody or anything like that. In fact, far from it. It was the type of character-study movie that makes your moral compass go haywire.

Let me give you the brief summary. This old, lonely hag (Judi Dench) of a teacher works at this private school for problem kids. She's like that strict, bitchy teacher that everyone hates, but respects. It's an English movie, so I had to get used to the accents. At the beginning of the movie, she describes each member of her staff by railing on them explicitly. She uses big words coupled with her English accent, so it's pretty funny hearing the putdowns. I imagine that when GT students get into fights, that's how they verbally abuse each other. Anyway, she's like the judgmental fossil whose $hit doesn't stink who has access to the skeletons in everyone's closet.

Okay, so what happens next is that a new, really green teacher (Cate Blanchett) joins the school and granny befriends her for some reason. It's an odd mix because no one really hangs out with the old hag, and EVERYONE wants to get close to pretty Cate Blanchett, but they somehow choose each other. Then, in the middle of the movie, something happens that changes the dynamics of their friendship. This is where the fun starts. I'm not going to tell you what it is, but let's just say that the granny teacher catches Cate doing something that she shouldn't be doing. She then, basically, goes on to bribe Cate throughout the rest of the movie for her own personal reasons which I also won't disclose because I don't want to spoil it for you. Sounds boring? It's not. Especially if you're a teacher. Or a mother. Or a single, lonely, bitter person.

This movie is so f@cked-up that you have to go see it for yourself. It's one of those movies where you wonder how people can be so evil, but then realize that there are, unfortunately, people that have been or are doing these things regularly. They should've called it Predator 3. Or Fatal Attraction 2. It's almost like you're disturbed by such a movie, but even more disturbed because it could really happen. It makes you a little afraid. It makes you question human nature. It makes you wonder if evil lurks just around the corner within people. It makes you realize that anyone is capable of anything given the right (or wrong) circumstances. Personally, I give this movie two middle fingers...