Judi Dench plays a teacher that keeps a diary of every detail of her life. Her current fascination is a new young teacher, played by Cate Blanchett, struggling to get her students to listen and respect her. Dench takes Blanchett under her wing, and becomes an everyday part of her life in school and out.
Overall I was not captivated, but thought that the mood this movie created was quite interesting. Blanchett's character Sheba, has an inappropriate releationship with one of her students, and Dench's character Barbara, discovers it.
Barbara promises not to tell on Sheba, but basically demands that she and Sheba become friends. Barbara becomes obsessed, she becomes creepy, she makes unwanted advances.
Her character breaks wide open in an extermely distressing scene right after cat dies. She comes to Sheba's house crushed, hoping for some companionship, a friend to lean on while she mourned the death of her pet. Sheba can't stay and console her, she's on her way to watch her son in a school play. Barbara cracks.
That scene is what pulled me deep into this film, it created a overwhelming, distressing, and anxious feeling in the pit of my stomach. Their performances, both so intense, were stunning, real, terrifying.
There were other scenes that make this film worth watching as well, but that was was the kicker.
Dench shows that she has years of coming, stunning performances up her sleeve. Blanchett proves her dynamic range of character. Worth checking out.