Scene-chewing melodrama extraordinaire as two school teachers, once friends, go head to head leaving them (and the audience) emotionally drained.
Bitter, cynical, disliked by both colleagues and students, the lonely ageing history teacher Barbara Covert (Judi Dench) bides her time as retirement approaches. The arrival of new art teacher Sheba Hart (Cate Blanchett) provides Covert with a new personal obsession. As she inveigles her way into the Hart family’s lives and wins the trust of Sheba, so the revelation of Sheba’s affair with a 15 year-old student plays directly into the older woman’s predatory instincts.
A riveting interplay between the two unspools. Emotions are laid bare as Dench and Blanchett provide the ultimate acting masterclass as directed by Richard Eyre (former artistic director of the the Royal National Theatre). The final resolve may be a little underwhelming after the exhaustion of professional and personal confrontations that preceded it, but Zoë Heller’s novel provides a zinger of a proverbial blood-letting.
Nominated for 4 Oscars in 2007 – best actress (Dench), supporting actress (Blanchett), adapted screenplay, original score (Philip Glass)
Rating: 77%
Director: Richard Eyre (Iris, Stage Beauty)
Writer: Patrick Marber (Closer, Alan Partridge) – based on the novel by Zoë Heller
Main cast: Judi Dench (Shakespeare in Love, Mrs Brown), Cate Blanchett (Blue Jasmine, Tár), Bill Nighy (Living, The Limehouse Golem)
An Opinion or Two 