Notes on a Scandal

Friendship is a tricky thing, especially when one is based on manipulation, deceit and utter desperation. That's the case in Notes on a Scandal.
Judi Dench plays Barbara Covett, a sad, lonely teacher who writes pithy observations in her diary and pines for love and companionship.
Soon, she meets Sheba, played by Cate Blanchett, the new art teacher at the school. At first, Barbara finds her frumpy and snobby but eventually becomes consumed with infatuation.
Sheba is in a passionless marriage, stuck in the routine of taking care of her children, one of whom has down syndrome. She longs for more and she finds it in one of her promising art students, Steven Connelly.
She begins a torrid affair with Steven, and Barbara finds out and uses that information against Sheba.
Barbara discovers the very thing that will keep Sheba close: the promise of friendship tinged with the threat of revealing a secret. It is a tension that drives the movie, as Barbara digs her needy claws into every aspect of Sheba's life, demanding Sheba's attention at even the most inopportune times.
Dench is a masterful actress, a hard-to-ignore presence in every scene, playing Barbara as a woman obsessed only because she feels trapped by her loneliness.
And Blanchett does well in the awfully hard role of a woman who risks her marriage and her career to have sex with a teenager. Yet, Blanchett makes Sheba utterly human, and you see the desperation and sadness she has that her life hasn't turned out quite the way she would have dreamed.
The chemistry between Dench and Blanchett is electric in every scene, and it is that electricity that keeps the audience invested in the movie, even when things go a little over the top at the end.
The word that kept coming to mind to describe this movie is delicious. Yummy. Delectable. The movie isn't all that deep. Instead, it is a sweet, sweet treat, down to the very last taste.