| Overall Grade: |
A |
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| Story: |
A |
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| Acting: |
A+ |
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| Direction: |
A |
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| Visuals: |
A |
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Judi Dench - Just Give Her the Oscar Now
by David (movies profile)
Mar 6, 2007
5
of
5 people found this review helpful
Superb acting all around in this highbrow psyhological thriller in the tradition of "Misery" and "Apartment Zero". But Judi Dench as the aging and lonely lesbian, Barbara Covett, gives the best, and most nuanced, performance of her career. She takes the crown from Kathy Bates in Misery as the creepiest sexual obsessive on the screen. Some of the scenes between her and Cate Blanchett will make your skin crawl.
Cate Blanchett (as Sheba Hart), Bill Nighy (as Cate Blanchett's husband) and Andrew Simpson (as Cate Blanchett's 15 year old boy toy) also turn in great performances. Often in a film, one of the three points of the triangle --- great story, great acting and great directing --- falls short, making the viewer painfully aware of watching a movie. In "Notes on a Scnadal" it all comes together. Its intelligent, stylish, fabulously acted and a great story to boot.
I live way out in the country, and have to drive 100 miles to Manhattan to see obscure or limited release films. I rate films in my mind as to whether the drive was worth it. This one would have been worth driving 200 miles to see! |
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