...I was inappropriately aroused by Cate Blanchett screwing a fifteen-year-old?

Saw 'Notes on a Scandal'. If you haven't, do. If you want a review, check out here, here, and here.

The film raises a number of challenging questions, such as 'are they just going to let Judi Dench pick up her Oscar at the door this year?', and 'is the idea of Cate Blanchett having sex with Bill Nighy more or less upsetting than the idea of Cate Blanchett having sex with Billy Bob Thornton (circa 'Bandits')?' Coming in a close third, however, is 'okay ... that was a slide-my-hand-up-my-date's-thigh sex scene ... between Cate ... and a fifteen year old kid. Should I seek help, or jump straight to a lifetime of silent self-loathing?'

It's a fair question. And the movie isn't going to help you out; I won't spoil the plot (it involves notes and a scandal) but nobody ever steers too near to the basic eew-factor of the hot Blanchett-on-child loving. In fact, this isn't really the point of the movie -- Cate's cradle-robbery is relevant primarily as a weapon in the arsenal of the twistedly pathetic Dench's obsession. But a random sample of the conversations leaving the theater would reveal that the most stickily troubling on-screen moments were also the most riveting ones: specifically, those that involved Blanchett's tongue in the mouth of or otherwise involved with one of her young pupils.

And see, here's the funny thing. Nowhere, from start to finish, is there any suggestion that Cate was in any way a predator, a molestor, or even in the driver's seat of this May-December (well ... March-July) relationship. I don't even hesitate to call it a 'relationship' -- and I'm immediately skeptical of any attempt to legitimize sexual affairs in which one party holds all the power. The fact is, the situation was not merely unshocking, it hardly even rose to the level of surprising: a horny and obviously experienced (in the Hendrix sense) teenage boy saw and took the opportunity to romance and use his rather callow and sheltered teacher. Bad for business, no doubt, and not the sort of thing we encourage. But is it really shocking?

How far can we take this line of reasoning? If the titular scandal had involved a thirtysomething man and a fifteen-year-old girl, would we be more or less inclined to condemn? More interestingly, would I have been more or less likely to blog about the hotness of the sex scenes?

Push it further. What if Dench, rather than Blanchett, had been the female party? Cate would be ethereally winsome if she went on a three-state killing spree; what if the participants had been as unattractive as the situation? At what point does the objection cease to be ethical and become mere squeamishness? Surely the phrase 'consenting adults' must have practical rather than a merely legal relevance. If we can acknowledge that age is no guarantee of sexual maturity or innocence, aren't we compelled to accept that such visceral reactions are simply that, and no more? Could there be a mutually-harmless sexual relationship so unappealing as to reach actual moral unacceptability? Maybe between Bill Nighy and Billy Bob Thornton. But even that's a maybe.