Scandal

1989 "The story that seduced the world is now the most controversial film of the year."
6.4| 1h55m| R| en| More Info
Released: 28 April 1989 Released
Producted By: Miramax
Country: United Kingdom
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
Synopsis

An English bon-vivant osteopath is enchanted with a young exotic dancer and invites her to live with him. He serves as friend and mentor, and through his contacts and parties she and her friend meet and date members of the Conservative Party. Eventually a scandal occurs when her affair with the Minister of War goes public, threatening their lifestyles and their freedom.

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Reviews

Stometer Save your money for something good and enjoyable
Salubfoto It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.
Catangro After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.
Frances Chung Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable
Rich Wright What seemed shocking in the 50's is almost commonplace in the debauched 21st Century, so to get a proper perspective on how controversial this was, one would probably have to have been alive during the period. In the absence of possessing a time machine though, one can only guess the outrage at the revelation that British MPs had secret sex parties and slept with prostitutes. WOW! If there is a similarity between now and then though, it's seems to be the determination of the tabloid press to publish as many lurid headlines as possible, regardless of how many lives they ruin. Vultures, the lot of 'em.For such a saucy role, it's surprising that Joanne Whalley-Kilmer doesn't show much skin... Apart from the most obvious use of a body double ever. Never mind, her co-stars more than make up for it on that score, including a rather young Bridget Fonda, fumbling with an English accent. John Hurt and Ian Mckellen complete an impressive cast, who tackle their roles with gusto and make it an engaging ensemble piece.I enjoyed it as an exposé of the morals and hypocrisies of a Britain on the verge of the Swinging Sixties, but was never truly engrossed. Nowadays, in a world where a woman can build a business empire based on one sex tape, you just know that everyone involved in this tawdry affair would be big reality TV stars. A sign of the times indeed. Sigh... 6/10
kenjha In this retelling of the Profumo scandal of 1963, ministers of Britain's Conservative Party carry on affairs with exotic dancers. Despite the juicy subject matter, there isn't much of a plot to sustain interest. It's basically gold diggers Whalley-Kilmer and Fonda having a series of affairs with powerful men and then the downfall of the men. The film tends to meander, with incongruent scenes of Whalley-Kilmer's affairs with a couple of drug-dealing black men. Whalley-Kilmer is quite alluring, and it is not hard to believe that men would risk their careers for dalliances with her. Hurt is fine as a doctor who introduces the girls to the ministers.
Spencer Clark This film is an account of the Profumo affair involving Christine Keeler. I really enjoyed this film as it was well made and i also like John Hurt as an Actor. His role in this film was of Stephen Ward the "scapegoat" of the whole Affair and this film portrays it from his side well, he doesn't fail in this film either! Joanne Whalley-Kilmer has an uncanny likeness to the real Miss Keeler too and in some parts it was hard to tell them apart. There are real locations used throughout the film too i.e Lord Astors house and the great pool!!!! There are some saucier scenes in the uncut version but either version contains enough plot etc and i don't feel it spoils it if you are viewing a edited version. This film is definitely well worth a look!
paul2001sw-1 Viewed from the 21st century, the Profumo affair seems much ado about nothing, a sex scandal of an altogether more innocent age. Put to one side the marginal security issues, and all that is left is a bit of bad behaviour among the aristocracy, and to be frank, if you choose not to shoot these people, you can't really expect for anything more. It did leave one serious casualty, however: Stephen Ward, procurer of girls to the upper classes, who committed suicide after being abandoned by his friends when the going got tough. 'Scandal' tells his story, and manages to be reasonably sympathetic to Ward, Christine Keeler (the girl who slept with Profumo) and even (to some extent) the minister, although the facts don't quite seem to support the continuing strength of the bond between Ward and Keeler as depicted. The portrait of the early 1960s is well judged (without the film ever feeling overly historical), and there are interesting insights into the semi-professional sexual relationships between the smart set and the girls on the make they adopted. But the best thing about 'Scandal' is really the acting. A distinguished array of British character actors perform their turns impeccably; and Joanne Whalley, while never quite looking eighteen, is a dead ringer for Keeler and always nice to look at. But in his own way, John Hurt (who plays Ward) is also great to look at, in his case because of his straightforward excellence as an actor. In his hands, Ward is an essentially mediocre man; and yet charming, far from wicked and ultimately tragic. In some senses, the whole affair provided a template for the subsequent portrayal of the private lives of politicians by the press, to the extent that today it would hardly make the waves that it did at the time. But this film goes far beyond historical reconstruction, and is well worth watching in spite of the relative triviality of the events is portrays.