Barbara is a high school teacher, head of the history department in a London Comprehensive which, as she puts it produces "plumbers and shop assistants and no doubt the odd terrorist". She is sharply intelligent but also single, unattractive, unloved and near retirement. The new school year brings in Sheba, youngish, attractive, married mother of two, to teach art. Barbara strikes up an acquaintanceship and discovers that Sheba is carrying on an affair with a 15 year old pupil. Instead of dobbing her in, Barbara uses this knowledge to get closer to Sheba. Then of course the secret gets out.
Put like that it's a pretty trite plot, but Judy Dench, aided by Patrick Marber's acid script, manages to give what might otherwise be a rather pathetic, if mendacious, character some real oomph. We see the earlier part of the story via copious voice-over largely from Barbara's point of view, but then find there's a lot she hasn't told us. It's not that her goal is reprehensible all she wants really is companionship it's that she is so ruthless in pursuing it.
As her target Sheba, Cate Blanchette is equally effective. Her real achievement is in portraying Sheba, the beautiful daughter of a famous economist, as rather a week character, irresolute, caught up in her emotions, a perfect foil for Barbara's steely determination. It is not without significance that it's Steven, her schoolboy lover, who initiates the relationship. She can't stop herself.
Bill Nighy, that expert at shifty characters, plays Sheba's older husband straight, and is very effective. Andrew Simpson as Steven is also very good. There is also a gem of a performance from Michael Maloney as the headmaster, an arch bureaucrat and devotee of political correctness. Phil Davis is also very good in a small part as Brian, another one of Sheba's admirers.
I'm afraid I have a complaint about the music. Phillip Glass is justly famous as a modern music composer. He is often billed as the last of the romantics. But here the score is intrusive, noisy and overdone undoing by overstatement the understated acting on the screen. This was a play, not an opera, and the music was just too much.
The familiar shots of London (from Parliament Hill?) which bookend this film have been showing up a lot in British movies lately. Here everything is shrouded in fog. But there is no ambiguity about this story. The ending is apparently different from Zoe Heller's original novel, but hardly comes as a surprise. What is interesting is what a common story student-teacher sex is. Check out the message board postings on this site. And most of it remains undetected.
Put like that it's a pretty trite plot, but Judy Dench, aided by Patrick Marber's acid script, manages to give what might otherwise be a rather pathetic, if mendacious, character some real oomph. We see the earlier part of the story via copious voice-over largely from Barbara's point of view, but then find there's a lot she hasn't told us. It's not that her goal is reprehensible all she wants really is companionship it's that she is so ruthless in pursuing it.
As her target Sheba, Cate Blanchette is equally effective. Her real achievement is in portraying Sheba, the beautiful daughter of a famous economist, as rather a week character, irresolute, caught up in her emotions, a perfect foil for Barbara's steely determination. It is not without significance that it's Steven, her schoolboy lover, who initiates the relationship. She can't stop herself.
Bill Nighy, that expert at shifty characters, plays Sheba's older husband straight, and is very effective. Andrew Simpson as Steven is also very good. There is also a gem of a performance from Michael Maloney as the headmaster, an arch bureaucrat and devotee of political correctness. Phil Davis is also very good in a small part as Brian, another one of Sheba's admirers.
I'm afraid I have a complaint about the music. Phillip Glass is justly famous as a modern music composer. He is often billed as the last of the romantics. But here the score is intrusive, noisy and overdone undoing by overstatement the understated acting on the screen. This was a play, not an opera, and the music was just too much.
The familiar shots of London (from Parliament Hill?) which bookend this film have been showing up a lot in British movies lately. Here everything is shrouded in fog. But there is no ambiguity about this story. The ending is apparently different from Zoe Heller's original novel, but hardly comes as a surprise. What is interesting is what a common story student-teacher sex is. Check out the message board postings on this site. And most of it remains undetected.