In Notes On A Scandal, Judi Dench gives a brave yet subtle performance as the embittered, emotionally off kilter and obsessive Barbara. Dench seems to be at her frightening best, not when she is raising her voice but when she is quiet – her grandmotherly and understated appearance belying her deceitful, conniving nature.

Resigned to life as a school teacher, Barbara counts the days until retirement; that is, until Cate Blanchett’s character, Sheba, becomes a teacher at the school, stirring a long suppressed yearning in Barbara that soon turns deliciously ugly.

The always beguiling Blanchett’s performance is also top-notch. Despite Sheba’s shortcoming (the teacher indulges in an indiscretion with an underage male student), Blanchett really makes you feel for Sheba’s plight, bringing a weighty fragility to her depiction of the character.

Yet it isn’t until Dench ferrets out Blanchett’s secret that the movie really comes alive, and then the two actors become truly luminescent in their respective roles.

In less capable hands, Notes on a Scandal could have resulted in the type of film that the Lifetime network thrives on. But Dench and Blanchett raise the stakes and mine true emotions rather than going the sensationalized fodder route.

The film works on several levels, at turns both dramatic and suspenseful, each quality a key component of the other, interlocking in seamless synchronicity. While the external plot unfolds, the film simultaneously exposes the women’s secret lives – those they wished they lived, rather than the ones they trudge through on a daily basis. As the common thread of secrets is revealed, the moral tapestry supporting each character’s actions and deliberate or not-so-deliberate choices unravels. It’s in this disentanglement that Notes truly resonates.

Notes On A Scandal will be released on DVD April 17.

The Science of Sleep has some very interesting moments and a great premise (taking a peek into the dream life of Stephane Miroux), but it lacks in execution, giving the film a schizophrenic feeling.

Miroux (Gael Garcia Bernal) is from Mexico City, but moves to Paris to take over his late father’s apartment, and work at a job procured by his mother. So sometimes his character speaks Spanish and sometimes he speaks French (both shown with subtitles), and then at times he speaks in plain old English (not shown with subtitles). While I have nothing against learning a new language by watching a movie, it gets to be a little tedious switching back and forth.

Also, Miroux keeps his identity of being the neighbor to a woman he is attracted to a secret. Is this because she might want to borrow some sugar, or rifle through his medicine cabinet? The reason is never made clear, and his behavior seems like the kind of fare that “Three’s Company” would have thrived on back in the day, except then it would have made sense.

The film has one saving grace, albeit a shallow one: Bernal has a you-have-to-pause-it-to-see-it full frontal/butt shot scene. While that doesn’t equate a reason to actually rent the movie, at least if you do, the film is seems less of a disappointment.

Of course, The Science of Sleep may just be the perfect remedy if you are experiencing insomnia.