Notes On A Scandal
British director Richard Eyre’s disturbing movie ‘Notes
On A Scandal’ must be one of the most vicious lesbian
themed movies to come out of England since ‘The Killing
of Sister George’ in 1968. ‘Scandal’ does
not take a sympathetic look at lesbian issues. Instead, it
depicts a cruel and callous world, inhabited by a scheming
and manipulative older woman who preys on the sensibilities
of her gullible and naïve associates. When Cate Blanchett
joins the staff of an English high school, as its new arts
teacher, she forms an uneasy alliance with an older school
mistress, who is harboring a secret infatuation for her. Though,
Judi Dench, as the older teacher, is reluctant to admit to
herself that the infatuation is sexual. Preferring to pass
it off as a case of ‘kindred spirits’. Slowly,
their relationship becomes more intense, and when Cate finally
realizes where it is heading, by then she has committed a
stupid indiscretion, and Cate finds herself caught within
the power of the older woman. Everything about this British
movie is first class. Richard Eyre’s direction, particularly
his use of extended ‘voice-overs’, is pertinently
invasive and acutely to the point. Patrick Marber’s
script is extremely well-written and intelligent, as it explores
the psychological relationship of these two women, while Cate
Blanchett and Judi Dench are both superb in their challenging
roles. As a typical silly English Rose, Cate Blanchett gives
one of her best performances to date, while she stumbles from
one precarious situation to another. Eventually, when pushed
to the limit, she finds the courage to resolve the situation
in a staggering decisive scene. Judi Dench is a Dame of the
English Theatre, and in her role as the older woman she shows
why she received her title. Her performance is riveting, and
she drains every emotion from her character, turning it into
one for which we feel immense compassion, yet one that we
are appalled by at the same time. Dame Judi’s final
scene sends chills of horror up your spine. This movie is
a highly emotional drama, which will have you completely enthralled.
Some audience members may be offended by the subject matter,
but, this is not to deny the power of the movie, and it should
not be missed.
The Last King Of Scotland
Forest Whitaker won an Academy Award this year as Best Actor
for his portrayal of Idi Amin, in Kevin MacDonald’s
grisly movie ‘The Last King Of Scotland’. However,
Whitaker’s award is a bit of a misdemeanor, for his
role is more of that as a supporting player. The real leading
man of the movie is James McAvoy, who depicts an idealistic
young Scottish doctor who happens to be at the right place
at the wrong time. On a medical mission to Uganda, McAvoy
treats the newly appointed Ugandan President Idi Amin after
a minor accident, and Idi Amin, charmed by his forthright
brazenness, picks McAvoy as his personal physician and close
confidant. McAvoy is enthralled by his opulent new lifestyle,
and he is seduced by the power he now wields as the friend
of the President. Nevertheless, as events unfold, he realizes
that being so close to the source of power is probably not
in his best interests, but by then it is way too late. Extricating
himself from the scene will prove to be extremely difficult.
It is an odd thing to say, but this movie really needs much
more violence that it actually shows. Events are always related
second-hand or through hearsay. We never actually see Idi
Amin do any of the horrific deeds he is credited with. Basically,
we see Forest Whitaker’s Idi Amin through James McAvoy’s
eyes, and what we see is a charming, magnetic man who comes
across as a slightly disgruntled ‘Big Daddy’,
with a bad case of flatulence, rather than the murderous monster
history would have us believe. This is a fundamental flaw
in the movie, and as we see no actual visual proof of Idi
Amin’s renowned maniacal violence, on face value it
is hard to accept Forest Whitaker as an insane despot with
cannibalistic tendencies. (Just what was in the refrigerators?).
Given the limitations of the script, Forest Whitaker turns
in a good performance but, all-the-same, you do feel as if
something fully evil and repulsive is missing from his characterization.
On the other hand, James McAvoy is brilliant as the young
doctor who learns the hard way the corrupting influences of
total power. By rights, James McAvoy should have won that
Academy Award.
The Good German
After watching Steven Soderbergh’s immaculate recreation
of a late 1940’s black and white post-war melodrama,
in his movie ‘The Good German’, you will find
that there is nothing much else to admire in the film except
Soderbergh’s cinematic sleight-of-hand. Back in 1948
legendary director Billy Wilder made a post-war melodrama
of his own, entitled ‘A Foreign Affair’, and it
starred Marlene Dietrich and a little known actor called John
Lund. At the time it received an Academy Award nomination.
Billy Wilder’s movie has some extraordinary similarities
to Steven Soderbergh’s imitation, or, perhaps we should
say, homage, movie. In a role that would have been played
by someone like Glen Ford or William Holden, George Clooney
makes a rather good lackadaisical Army War Correspondent,
fossicking through the ruins of Berlin, in an attempt to solve
the murder of an American soldier on the eve of a Summit Meeting,
when the Allies and Russia are about to carve-up and relocate
the European borders. Meanwhile, as George’s pre-war
German assistant and former lover, Cate Blanchett over acts
outrageously. She swans around like a later-day Marlene Dietrich,
stilted accent and all, manipulating everyone in her path
as she tries to escape Germany. It is obvious Cate has something
to hide! Now, normally, I would be quite keen about this sort
of movie. Being a big fan of ‘genre’ and ‘tribute’
cinema. But, in this case, Soderbergh uses Billy Wilder’s
cinematic blue-print to create an exceptionally dull movie.
Steven Soderbergh would claim that he is taking a significant
message to a new and younger cinema audience, but, given the
current world political scene, plus contemporary cinema themes
combined with the expectations of contemporary cinema audiences,
it would take more than a simple recreation of an extremely
‘clunky’ old fashioned movie style to capture
and maintain the interest of a present-day audience, with
events which occurred over sixty years ago.
