the movieGOOMBA

3 GOOMBAS

In today's world of Jerry Springer, wardrobe malfunctions, and publicized sex tapes, scandal isn't something new, but that doesn't make it comfortable to take. Especially when it comes to school teachers having relations with their underage students, and I always wonder what kind of grown up woman can "fall" for a pre-pubescent boy. Notes On A Scandal gives us a peak into the inner lives and thoughts of just that.

Expressed in a creative manner, Notes On A Scandal is narrated by Barbara Covette (Judi Dench), a comprehensive school history teacher in London. A strange, snobby, and lonely old soul, Barbara has only one intimate relationship. It's with her journal, which she compulsively writes in, and when Sheba Hart (Cate Blanchette) starts as the new, beautiful art teacher, Covette's observations of the new teacher are thoroughly documented. When a playground brawl gets out of hand, Covette comes to Hart's aid, and a friendship ensues. Hart simultaneously begins an affair with her 15 year old student, and when Covette catches wind of it, Covette sees this as her chance to blackmail her way into companionship.

The characters in this film are rich and complex, disturbing and empathic, and though the story is relatively straightforward, each personality complicates the plot in an extraordinary way. Not only is Barbara malicious and manipulative, but she's practically poisonous. She wheedles her way into Sheba's life, reminiscent of that creepy movie, The Hand That Rocks The Cradle, and uses Sheba's affair as leverage. Sheba isn't a pedophile, and she's not even disillusioned. She's a regular school teacher whose life had lost itself to child-rearing and domestic activities. When a young, strapping boy pursues her irrepressibly, she gives in to the attention, and finds herself addicted to the world he represents; youth, freedom, and irresponsibility.

Artistically, the acting in this film is distinguished and the soundtrack alone is stunning. The whole time the music told me that the wheels were in motion for something huge to happen, and it wasn't Sheba's affair. Without the great acting and great music, this movie would be nothing. Movie-wise, this isn't your weekend kind of rent. This film is geared toward the more refined palate, but the class of this movie gets lost somewhere between what is entertainment and what is art. It's not good enough to be a great art piece, and it's not good enough to be entertainment; not quite the scandal it hoped it could be.