Saturday, February 24, 2007
Notes on a Scandal
Judy Dench is amazing in Notes on a Scandal.
She plays an old maid teacher who is obsessed with a younger female teacher.
One interesting thing about this movie and Venus is that in both of them the main character is an old actor, Peter O'Toole/Judy Dench, performing masterfully. It is unusual to have major roles for old people. I think it may be targeting the aging baby boom audience.
What both Dench and O'Toole can do with just a look, pursed lips, a walk is really remarkable.
The way I saw Notes on a Scandal there was not a missed note. You could see the train wreck coming almost from the first scene. The Barbara character in this movie had similarities to the Maurice character in Venus. I see the main difference as being that Maurice was old but accepted his decline. He was determined to get what he could out of the time he had left. He wasn't crazy. For the most part his expectations were realistic.
Barbara was crazy. She was very lonely and she had serial obsessions. The moment when that becomes completely clear is when her cat is going to be euthanized and she demands that Sheba be with her even though Sheba is on her way to her Down syndrome son's perform in his first play. She could not understand how a mother's love of her child could take priority over a cat. She was very scary. An amazing performance!
She plays an old maid teacher who is obsessed with a younger female teacher.
One interesting thing about this movie and Venus is that in both of them the main character is an old actor, Peter O'Toole/Judy Dench, performing masterfully. It is unusual to have major roles for old people. I think it may be targeting the aging baby boom audience.
What both Dench and O'Toole can do with just a look, pursed lips, a walk is really remarkable.
The way I saw Notes on a Scandal there was not a missed note. You could see the train wreck coming almost from the first scene. The Barbara character in this movie had similarities to the Maurice character in Venus. I see the main difference as being that Maurice was old but accepted his decline. He was determined to get what he could out of the time he had left. He wasn't crazy. For the most part his expectations were realistic.
Barbara was crazy. She was very lonely and she had serial obsessions. The moment when that becomes completely clear is when her cat is going to be euthanized and she demands that Sheba be with her even though Sheba is on her way to her Down syndrome son's perform in his first play. She could not understand how a mother's love of her child could take priority over a cat. She was very scary. An amazing performance!
# posted by blue-foot Sue @ 10:18 PM 
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