Who's in It: Judi Dench, Cate Blanchett, Bill Nighy
The Basics: Dench is an obsessive, diary-keeping, closeted-lesbian high school teacher who sets her infrared sex-vision on Blanchett. Blanchett, however, only has sex-vision for one of her 15-year-old male students. Wackiness ensues.
What's the Deal? I love trashy exploitation films, and I especially love them when they dress themselves up in tweedy Britishness and flaunt Oscar-grubbing actresses in your face to make it all seem more significant than it is. It wants to be a thrilling portrait of obsession, but what it reminded me of most was Windows.
Oh? You've Never Heard of Windows? Well, Let Me Explain It to You: It's from 1980 and stars Elizabeth Ashley and Talia Shire (Rocky's Adrian). Liz hires a thug to rape Talia so that Talia will hate men and run to Liz's loving embrace. It's nasty and lurid and, of course, totally hilarious.
Hey, Judi Dench-o-Philes: This time around, your favorite English Dame is a monster, calling Blanchett's son with Down syndrome "tiresome," doing her best to break up Blanchett's marriage, blackmailing her and generally getting vampiric at tea time.
More Selling Points: Technically, I guess what I'm about to say is a spoiler, so if you're one of those people who hates to know anything about a movie before you see it, then you should stop reading now. You get to see the following bad behavior take place, thanks to the fancy ladies: Blanchett getting beaten up by her 15-year-old boyfriend's mom; Blanchett smearing crazy makeup on her face and screaming like a bear in a trap with reporters waiting outside her house; Blanchett tearing up Dench's apartment and having a super-meltdown-conniption. It's very worth the ticket price.