Some movie reviewers have called "Bad Education" a Spanish film noir. Others have compared Almodovar to Hitchock. I can't see it, myself, except that the opening credits and music are a nod to "Psycho", and the instrumental score is well suited to the film noir genre.
But the main drawing card in this film is its male lead, Gael Garcia Bernal, most recently seen in "The Motorcycle Diaries".
I'd hate to be working at any theatre where "Bad Education" is showing. The staff is going to have to mop up a lot of drool off the floor. Garcia Bernal is hot, hot, hot -- buff, frequently shirtless, sometimes underwear-clad or bare-buttocked. He is to Almodovar's 21st-century fans what a young Antonio Banderas was in the director's breakthrough film, "Law of Desire". (Garcia Bernal turns out to be just as stunning and sensational as a drag queen.) But even Garcia Bernal's sultry, sexy, androgynous good looks cannot justify or support a fundamentally flawed yet crucial plot element. We are expected to believe that a former priest, who lusted after a ten-year-old boy, conceives an equally ardent passion for a twentysomething hunk. This runs counter to a pedophile's psychological makeup, and the logic of the film thus completely falls apart.
The transgenderism and child sexual abuse of "Bad Education" mirror certain aspects of "Law of Desire", in which Carmen Maura plays a sex-change who visits her old school and confronts the religious who served as its director. In this sense, Almodovar has come full circle.
Most of Almodovar's films have focused on female characters. It is as if he was not ready or willing to deal with his own male homosexuality in his work. "Bad Education" is, as it were, his cinematic coming-out. But even Almodovar's closet was as vibrant and colorful as any drag queen's wardrobe could ever be.
But the main drawing card in this film is its male lead, Gael Garcia Bernal, most recently seen in "The Motorcycle Diaries".
I'd hate to be working at any theatre where "Bad Education" is showing. The staff is going to have to mop up a lot of drool off the floor. Garcia Bernal is hot, hot, hot -- buff, frequently shirtless, sometimes underwear-clad or bare-buttocked. He is to Almodovar's 21st-century fans what a young Antonio Banderas was in the director's breakthrough film, "Law of Desire". (Garcia Bernal turns out to be just as stunning and sensational as a drag queen.) But even Garcia Bernal's sultry, sexy, androgynous good looks cannot justify or support a fundamentally flawed yet crucial plot element. We are expected to believe that a former priest, who lusted after a ten-year-old boy, conceives an equally ardent passion for a twentysomething hunk. This runs counter to a pedophile's psychological makeup, and the logic of the film thus completely falls apart.
The transgenderism and child sexual abuse of "Bad Education" mirror certain aspects of "Law of Desire", in which Carmen Maura plays a sex-change who visits her old school and confronts the religious who served as its director. In this sense, Almodovar has come full circle.
Most of Almodovar's films have focused on female characters. It is as if he was not ready or willing to deal with his own male homosexuality in his work. "Bad Education" is, as it were, his cinematic coming-out. But even Almodovar's closet was as vibrant and colorful as any drag queen's wardrobe could ever be.