Notes on a Scandal (2006)

Judi Dench is a sore old spinster who thinks she's missed her shot at life's sweet spot when she meets, and promptly becomes obsessed with, comely Cate Blanchett. So far, so very, very understandable! Cate's a first-rate damsel. But Notes on a Scandal (2006) is about the kind of attraction that makes even a dame like Judi fly way off the handle. When she learns that fellow teacher Cate is doing it with a fifteen-year-old student, Judi goes a little blooey, and she goes ahead and gives herself carte blanche to try to control Cate's life by any means necessary. Rife with eerie intelligence and knife-edge creepiness, Notes on a Scandal is masterfully nasty--a Fatal Attraction (1987) of a queerer sort, in which two Oscar winners destroy each other for emotional bloodsport.