Bad Education Film Review

Bad Education

     Bad Education is a movie directed by Pedro Almodovar and released in 2004. The story was told in the Spanish language with English subtitles. In this film, two childhood friends, Enrique and Ignacio, meet up years after they’ve left a private Catholic school. While at the school they fell in love, but were driven apart by sick Father Manolo. Enrique is now a popular film producer and Ignacio is an actor seeking work. Ignacio produces a script called “The Visit,” based on their real lives in hopes that Enrique will turn it into a movie, and give him the main role. The scenes tell the plot through three different tales – the past, the present, and what is being depicted while filming a movie based on their lives. They are all interwoven together. A series of twists and turns will keep the viewer watching and thinking. In this movie about passion and death, nothing is as it really seems.

     The two biggest themes in Bad Education are deceit and unwavering love. It seems as if every character in the film is deceptive, or has another motive for doing what they do. Father Manolo is obviously deceptive to his faith and followers at his church because he is pursuing a young boy. When he became older and was being blackmailed by a transgendered Ignacio, he was granted the loan he needed, but lied to Ignacio in hopes of pursuing his younger brother, Juan. Juan was playing himself off as Ignacio so that he could get a part in Enrique’s movie. Enrique knew this almost immediately, but pretended that he didn’t so that he could grow closer to Juan and find out what really happened to Ignacio. Plus, Ignacio lied to his brother and mother multiple times about entering rehab all the while stealing valuables from churches and johns at a hotel.

     The second theme, unwavering love, can be seen in a few places in the film. Ignacio’s mother loved her son, no matter what, and supported him when he became transgendered. Enrique loved Ignacio even after years and years of not seeing him, and loved him even after his death because of Father Manolo and Juan. Father Manolo and Juan even loved each other for some time, until a terrible scheme they put forth tore them apart. Despite being sick and twisted, Father Manolo loved Ignacio as a boy and still seemed to care about him somewhat even after being blackmailed by him.

     I enjoyed this film. I enjoy films that make you think. Hollywood is too predictable now adays, in my opinion. This is the first film I’ve seen in a while that kept me guessing. I certainly didn’t foresee some of the plot twists in the movie. I’m happy everything was flushed out well so that I truly understood what was going on towards the end of the film. I could have done without some of the graphic male-on-male scenes in the movie. I felt that, while they were important to the plot, they were just a little too graphic and overdone. Those scenes didn’t subtract too much quality from the film and I would still recommend it to other film members studying films from other countries.

To view the trailer for the film, please watch below.