Most critics like Notes on a Scandal, and nearly all of them like it for the same reason. Judi Dench’s Barbara is praised in almost every review, as chilling, imperious, spiteful and grotesquely comic, and several critics pair her with Cate Blanchett and find the scenes between the two women the film’s best. The warmer notices call it a gripping, deviously entertaining thriller that stays absorbing even though neither woman is easy to like.
The reservations gather around the writing rather than the acting. The mixed reviews find the characters thin and the drama brittle; Slant Magazine thinks the third act is rushed, and The AV Club objects to the score as well as the shallow characterisation. The one outright dissent comes from the Los Angeles Times, which finds the adaptation bombastic and less psychologically complex than the novel. The spread is moderate: a cluster of strong recommendations, a block of three-star shrugs, and a single refusal.