by Linda Kay
Directed by: Richard Eyre
This review contains a Kitty Carnage Warning!
Cat Out of the Bag Alert! This review contains some spoilers for this film!
Synopsis: Acerbic senior teacher Barbara Covett (Judi Dench) becomes infatuated with the newly hired young art teacher Sheba Hart (Cate Blanchett) which turns to jealousy, rage and revenge when she finds out Sheba is having an affair with a fifteen year old student (Andrew Simpson).
Cat Burglar (Scene Stealer): Barbara owns a brown longhair tabby cat named Portia who is often on hand while she is writing down her innermost thoughts in her diary.
Sheba sees Portia sitting in a cage in Barbara’s car after they have had coffee to talk over recent events. Barbara explains the poor cat hasn’t been doing well and has been off her food.
Barbara visits her sister Marjorie (Julia McKenzie) who comes into her room and gives Portia some pets. Barbara does not appear to appreciate her sister’s intrusion or questions about her personal life.
Returning from the store one day, Barbara finds Portia throwing up in the kitchen. A visit to the vet confirms her worst fears that Portia only has weeks to live.
Kitty Carnage Warning! Eventually Barbara returns to the vet when it is clear Portia is not going to make it (the cat’s death is not shown on screen). This sets off a chain of events when Sheba needs to go to her son’s play and turns down Barbara’s desperate pleas for her to accompany her to the vet to pick up the body.
We eventually see Barbara burying a photograph of Portia in a silver frame given to her by Sheba along with the deceased kitty wrapped in a blanket.
The head cat trainer on the film was Esther Murphy.
Final Mewsings: Never upset a manipulative, obsessive woman when she has just lost her cat.
Many thanks to T.j. Dotson, Aaron Shuster and Mark Murton for letting us know about the cat in this film.
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