I love Judi Dench (who doesn't?). I love Bill Nighy. And I've got a bit of a girl crush on Cate Blanchett (Have you seen her in The Life Aquatic with, apparently, no make-up on? She's just unbelievably beautiful!). And I loved the book by Zoe Heller. So I don't know why it took me so long to get around to watching this movie...
At first I was a bit disappointed by the casting of Andrew Simpson as Steven Connolly - the boy Cate Blanchett's character, Sheba, has an affair with - because I thought he was too young-looking and not sexy enough, but then I realised he's supposed to be 15 and she's supposed to be taking advantage of him, so that disappointment was clearly inappropriate!
As the film went on, my disappointment lessened anyway, since I found Simpson pretty convincing. In fact, all the performances were brilliant and there was a convincing level of tension throughout the entire movie.
Like the book, my sympathies switched between Dench's Barbara and Blanchett's Sheba and, like the book, I was left feeling unsettled. In other words, a fabulous film of a fabulous book.