A lovely spin on the traditional stalker narrative popularised with by-the-numbers slasher movies like The Hand That Rocks The Cradle, this psychological drama doesnt bother with attempting to engender sympathy for its harassed heroine, and doesnt come with a tacked on shes aliiiiiiive knife-wielding ending, thank god. Dame Judi Dench plays Barbara, a spiteful but lonely history teacher with no friends except for a rather poorly and elderly cat, and with an irrational obsession with the stunning Cate Blanchett, playing Sheba (yes, really), the art teacher having an affair with a teenaged pupil. When Barbara finds out, she holds it over her head, attempting to blackmail the younger woman into a weird parody of close friendship, with tragic results. Patrick Marbers dialogue is characteristically sharp and nasty (this is the guy who compared the human heart to a fist, wrapped in blood in the later Closer), and Dench and Blanchett are magnetic in this utterly unsentimental look at twisted, abusive love. When at the end, Sheba gently tries to explain that Barbara didnt have to blackmail her that she was happy to be her friend, regardless Barbara doesnt know how to accept the simple emotional truth being offered, stating that she needed more than that. Outed, Sheba may have lost her marriage and her future, being sentenced to ten months in prison for statutory rape, while Barbara moves on to her next victim, oblivious to Sheba's suffering: a toad sitting waiting with furled tongue to catch the next fly.
Professional writer, punk werewolf and nesting place for starfish. Obsessed with squid, spirals and story. I publish short weird fiction online at desincarne.com, and tweet nonsense under the name Jack The Bodiless. You can follow me all you like, just don't touch my stuff.
