For some mysterious reason the last time the boyfriend and I went to the cinema, I was allowed the honour of picking the movie.  This was a good move on his part.  His first reaction to Notes On A Scandal, which I chose from cinema company Finnkino’s excellent new web-pages, was to grunt ‘chick flick alert.” He was singing a different tune when we left the cinema.

Rent this film, buy it, borrow it, steal it. Of course not the last option, just make sure you see it before you grow ear hair or wear socks in bed.

Notes On A Scandal is based on the 2003 booker-prize short listed novel of the same name by Brit journalist and novelist Zoë Heller. Heller’s novel and this film directed by Richard Eyre (Iris, Stage Beauty) take shape around the diary of Barbara, a very lonely school teacher in her mid sixties, played by Judi Dench.

In the beginning of the film Barbara quickly becomes the trusted friend of a new, young art teacher Sheba, who is married with two children. Sheba, played by Cate Blanchett, is lost in her marriage and feels just as lonely as Barbara. When a 15-year old student begins unmistakeably to hit on her the temptation is too big and she starts an affair with him.

Believing she’s found her soul mate and having some kind of a crush on Sheba, Barbara becomes terribly jealous when she finds out. But instead of reporting the affair to the school, Barbara uses the situation to become even closer to Sheba. Hurt and betrayed, Barbara shows incredible cruelty, evidently without limits.

Dench, who plays M in the recent James Bond movies, and starred in Eyre’s adaptation of English novelist Iris Murdoch’s life, does an excellent job as the bitter and sarcastic old Barbara. Small details - the roll of an eye, a displeased look - form a rich impression of the old spinster.

In spite of her evil you pity her, because Dench lets you see that Barbara is a possessive, intensive and eventually frightening friend, because she deep down is afraid of being alone. “I am upset if someone reads her as solely monstrous,” commented Heller in a recent interview.  

This is an honest, intelligent and intimidating movie about loneliness that will keep you sitting very still for one and a half hours, will stick to your mind and haunt you for days – perhaps because loneliness is universal.