Best Actress in a Supporting Role 2006: Cate Blanchett in Notes on a Scandal

Cate Blanchett received her third Oscar nomination for her performance as Sheba Hart in Notes on a Scandal.

Notes on a Scandal is a fairly effective movie about a veteran high school teacher who befriends a younger colleague, who is having an affair with a 15-year-old student. I believe that the movie actually could have gone further into its dark subject but it's nonetheless engaging and interesting. The nomination for Best Original Screenplay is quite deserved as there are some pretty excellent dialogues but I'm glad it didn't win as there are a few problems within it. The score is remarkable and worthy of its nomination.

Cate Blanchett's nomination in this category is a bit puzzling as Sheba is clearly a leading character as the movie follows her just as much as it follows Judi Dench's Barbara. There is a large amount of scenes told from Sheba's perspective and she gets quite a lot of screen-time. It's really just a bad case of category fraud. But let's talk about her turn here: this is actually one of Blanchett's most interesting work as it is completely different from any other performance she's given. Many times throughout her wonderful and versatile career, Blanchett has played people who hid their vulnerabilities behind something else: her Queen Elizabeth hid her doubts behind a strong, commanding façade; both her Jude Quinn and her Katharine Hepburn hid their emotional frailty behind their larger-than-life personalities; her Jasmine's snobbish and arrogant attitude served as a cover up for her emotional and mental instability; and her Carol Aird hid her loneliness and desperation under a sophisticated, refined appearence. In this regard, Sheba Hart is completely different as she doesn't have any façade and can be clearly seen from what she is: a fragile, often weak-willed person. Blanchett does a fantastic job at nullifying her commanding, magnetic screen-presence in order to better portray the character of Sheba, that for the most part is rid of theatrics, mannerisms and tics but is just an ordinary woman. So yes, I believe that this is one of Blanchett's most interesting performances, but is it also one of her best? Well, not quite. 

For the first two third of the movie, her performance is actually excellent. As I mentioned before, Blanchett completely disappears into the role of Sheba dropping her movie star quality and just inhabiting perfectly her character and her reality. I think Blanchett does a fantastic job in developing the friendship between Barbara and Sheba and both actresses realize their relationship extremely well: Dench does a great job in hinting at a possessive, overbearing side of Barbara while Blanchett is fantastic in showing how Sheba sincerely wants to befriend Barbara and just genuinely likes her as a person. Their scenes together are extremely good because both actresses realize impeccably the differences between their character's feelings making their relationship extremely interesting and compelling to watch. Blanchett is also brilliant in portraying Sheba's feelings towards her family: on one hand, she is very good in showing that she does love her husband and sons and clearly cares about them; on the other hand, Sheba just doesn't feel fulfilled and satisfied in her life and Blanchett does a brilliant job in conveying that during a beautifully written monologue about how the life you lead ends up being completely different from the life you imagined. It's a great scene that is wonderfully acted by Blanchett who perfectly portrays the regret, melancholy and longing of Sheba. Blanchett underplays the monologue, delivering it in a quiet, subtle fashion that makes it all the more effective. Thanks to those scenes she perfectly establishes the reasons behind Sheba's behavior, who embarks on an affair with one of her students. In the scenes involving the affair, Blanchett is great as she shows how gradually things just spiral out of Sheba's control.

The third act of the movie, when the affair is revealed, is where the things gets a little more problematic, even if for the most part Blanchett is still very good. She is raw and devastating as she is confronted by the student's mother and her husband kicks her out of the house - Blanchett is heartbreaking in showing how Sheba's life just falls apart. The problems I have with her performance mostly involve the scene in which Sheba finds out that it was Barbara who revealed her secret and she angrily confronts her about it. It's a rather poor scene as, writing-wise, it doesn't fit at all the character of Sheba and Blanchett herself feels very off as her aggressive approach to the scene just doesn't cohere with the gentle, fragile characterization of Sheba. A more hurt and heartbroken reaction would have suited the character better and the moment in which Sheba physically attacks Barbara is particularly cringe-worthy because it really doesn't feel like something that Sheba would have done. Blanchett finds some striking moments within the scene (her line-reading of "Do you think this is a love affair?" is pitch-perfect) but in other moments she overdoes it and the scene outside of the house when she screams at the journalist is just a bit too much. She finds some much more effective moments later, as she tones down her acting quite a bit: the scene in which she tells Barbara that they really could have been friends is surprisingly poignant and Blanchett's last scene in the movie, as Sheba silently begs her husband to let her come back to their house, is excellently acted by both her and Bill Nighy. 

Ultimately, Cate Blanchett delivers a powerful performance. Her breakdown towards the end is unfortunately a huge letdown and undermines the rest of her absolutely first-rate work, in which she does a fantastic job in disappearing into the complex character of Sheba. Not quite flawless, but it's still a great work from an amazing actress.

4/5