A veteran high school teacher befriends a younger art teacher, who is having an affair with one of her 15-year-old students. However, her intentions with this new "friend" also go well beyond platonic friendship.
Acting
Dench and Blanchett devour each other on screen—two titans at peak venom.
Writing
Patrick Marber's script weaponizes every polite British pleasantry.
Score
Philip Glass's repetitive dread machine—your anxiety will thank you.
Director
Richard Eyre
Judi Dench
Barbara Covett
Cate Blanchett
Sheba Hart
Bill Nighy
Richard Hart
Andrew Simpson
Steven Connolly
Phil Davis
Brian Bangs
Michael Maloney
Sandy Pabblem
Juno Temple
Polly Hart
Joanna Scanlan
Sue Hodge
Julia McKenzie
Marjorie
Shaun Parkes
Bill Rumer
Tom Georgeson
Ted Mawson
Emma Kennedy
Linda
Syreeta Kumar
Gita
Wendy Nottingham
Elaine Clifford
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Judi Dench's diary voiceover was recorded in a single day, hunched over a prop notebook in total darkness.
The novel's author Zoe Heller later said the film softened Barbara's explicit queerness, making her obsession more ambiguous—and arguably more sinister.
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