Notes on a Scandal
Fox Searchlight Pictures | Release Date: December 27, 2006 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
73
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 35 Critic Reviews
Positive:
26
Mixed:
8
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
San Francisco ChronicleRuthe Stein
Notes on a Scandal won't be everyone's cup of tea. But if you like your films strong, this one is not to be missed. Read full review
100
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
It's a poison bonbon tastier than just about anything else out there. Read full review
91
Seattle Post-IntelligencerPaula Nechak
The two women -- as well as the always marvelous Bill Nighy as Blanchett's "older" husband -- run roughshod over its third act flaws and, with their exquisitely detailed performances, make it better than it is. It's an actor's triumph. Read full review
91
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
Oacks more heat, acid, danger and drama into its brief running time than most films of nearly double the length. Read full review
90
NewsweekDavid Ansen
A wicked delight. Adapted by playwright Patrick Marber from Zoe Heller's acclaimed novel, it's at once a comedy of cluelessness and class, a melodrama of two women in the grips of wildly inappropriate obsessions, and a "Fatal Attraction"-style thriller. Read full review
90
VarietyJustin Chang
The riveting interplay between Dench and Cate Blanchett draws blood with every scene, thanks to a precision-honed script and Eyre's equally incisive direction. Read full review
90
New York Magazine (Vulture)David Edelstein
Anyone who loves live-wire acting will gasp in awe at Blanchett, more emotionally exposed than ever, and, most of all, at Dame Judi, who’s so electric she makes you quiver. Read full review
90
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
The skillful Patrick Marber (Closer) adapted this gripping drama from a novel by Zoe Heller, and it's both literate and urgently plotted, with a voice-over from Dench that cuts like broken glass. Read full review
88
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
As the relationship between the two British schoolteachers begins (quietly), builds (deceptively) and dissolves (spectacularly), Dench and Blanchett give a master class in acting. Pick your own sports metaphor, but watching them go at each other is the match of the year. Read full review
88
Boston GlobeTy Burr
Notes on a Scandal is a nice mug of poisoned eggnog for the holiday season -- a movie so smart and entertaining you almost don't feel its chill sicken your bones. Read full review
88
New York PostLou Lumenick
Arguably the year's most entertaining art-house film. Read full review
88
Miami HeraldConnie Ogle
Dench and Blanchett will likely pick up Oscar nominations; no one could improve on either performance. Read full review
80
Washington PostStephen Hunter
I can't remember a film that sees the here and now more precisely, one that offers total believability in the tone and motive of its characters and then goes further, showing us a whole and completely recognizable world. Read full review
80
Village VoiceRobert Wilonsky
Notes on a Scandal, brilliantly adapted by Patrick Marber from the darkly comic Zo Heller novel, is a grim piece of work -- "Fatal Attraction" for the art-house crowd, shorn of its predecessor's fearful misogyny. Read full review
80
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
Taken at face value, these two women are simply despicable. But the screenplay has a bracing tincture of Grand Guignol, and nothing is simple when the two women are played by a couple of superlative actresses who clearly delight in one another.
80
The New YorkerDavid Denby
A wonderfully entertaining movie. Read full review
80
EmpireOlly Richards
Intelligent, classy and skin-crawling. You won't see a better acting masterclass this year. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter Travers
If you want to see explosive acting, just watch Judi Dench and Cate Blanchett ignite in this film version of Zoe Heller's 2003 novel. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael Phillips
Leave it to the first-class actors dining out on those roles to make the cat and the mouse interesting and unpredictable. Read full review
75
USA TodayClaudia Puig
Notes on a Scandal may be disturbing, but it is a potent and captivating account of misconduct and betrayal. Read full review
75
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
Though at heart a tightly-wound, bitterly bleak comedy of manners, Eyre's film is less funny than brilliantly squirm-inducing, a dissection of bad behavior via rapier-sharp dialogue. Read full review
75
Charlotte ObserverLawrence Toppman
The best vampire movie I've seen in years. Read full review
63
PremiereGlenn Kenny
If the resultant wreckage is a little underwhelming, and the film's coda useless and trite, the getting there is pretty absorbing. Read full review
63
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
The most important part of any thriller - even one as upper crust as this - is the resolution, and that's where Notes on a Scandal falls on its face. The ending itself isn't bad but the single act leading to it is unforgivable. Read full review
63
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
What it lacks, though, is any sense that these people - are real. Read full review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick Groen
We're left with the weakest part of the novel -- the lurching and often melodramatic plot -- plus the chance to see two splendid actors, Judi Dench and Cate Blanchett, do the best they can with what they're given (sadly, in Blanchett's case, not much). Okay, no one would call that trade-off a scandal, but it sure ain't much of a bargain. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterKirk Honeycutt
Eyre does a fine job overseeing performances by a terrific cast that rings true until female hysteria takes over the final act. But in tone and theme, the film has all the hallmarks of playwright-screenwriter Marber's stark, uncompromising misanthropy, if not misogyny. Read full review
60
TimeRichard Corliss/Richard Schickel
Director Richard Eyre and screenwriter Patrick Marber keep forcing us past disbelief and into the perverse pleasures of nastiness. If nothing else, their film is the perfect antidote to all those warm, forgiving schoolboy dramas we've endured through the years. This corn is not green; it is rotten down to the last kernel. Read full review
60
The New York TimesManohla Dargis
The actors in Notes on a Scandal are equally distinguished: Ms. Dench and Ms. Blanchett are among the finest on the market today, and each can deliver expert performances, even when, as is the case here, their roles are false and hollow. The performers sell the goods, but the goods are cheap. Read full review
58
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
Notes on a Scandal isn't humorous or witty enough to sustain black comedy, and it isn't insightful or deep enough to suggest a contemporary tragedy. All it does is put an eloquent veneer on petty meanness. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesCarina Chocano
In bringing Heller's book to the screen, director Richard Eyre ("Iris," "Stage Beauty") and screenwriter Patrick Marber ("Closer") have tossed the book's subtlety out the window, along with its psychological complexity, its running theme of self-deception and its dark, extra-wry sense of humor. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleMarjorie Baumgarten
On a certain level, Notes on a Scandal can be fun viewing, but, odds are, you'll find you won't respect yourself in the morning. Read full review
50
SlateDana Stevens
Notes on a Scandal is a wobbly film that never settles on its tone or, perhaps more precisely, its voice. It can't figure out what kind of movie it wants to be: a high-camp melodrama, a realistic psychological portrait of a troubled female friendship, or a vampire-lesbian horror film. Read full review
40
L.A. WeeklyElla Taylor
Queasily parked between halfhearted satire and overcooked melodrama, this adaptation of a well-received 2003 novel by British writer Zoë Heller offers the unhappy spectacle of a raft of acting talent trying to do right by slimy material. Read full review
30
Film ThreatPhil Hall
Sadly, the whole affair is little more than ennui with a pedigree. Read full review
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