How does one review a movie like "Bad Education: (La Mala Educación)" without giving its plot away. I liked one review which read:
"A densely layered, darkly funny look at the lies people tell themselves and others in order to make their fantasies come true."-- Glenn Whipp, LOS ANGELES DAILY NEWS"
It is a movie about lies and fantasies and like everyone else, we tell white lies to make our fantasies come true. I have never been a big fan of Pedro Almodovar, but this is one of my favourites of his, made easier by one of the most exciting talents to emerge in recent years, the delicious Gael García Bernal.
It is so nice to see Gael taking risks with his acting career, jumpstarted by the wonderful "Y Tu Mama Tabien" followed by the amazing "Motorcycle Dairies" and now this. He plays two characters, one of which is a drag queen, and the other, an aspiring actor who struggles to get his first break. There are a few gay sex scenes and it is refreshing to see Gael play it all in good faith even though he is heterosexual. Just imagine a Hollywood actor playing this ... I guess not. It is a testament to his talents, confidence, and a desire to play interesting roles without being typecast, and he fulls it all of with smoldering sexuality.
The movie also exposes many stories we have heard about priests and child molestations and is apparently a semi-autobiographical story penned by Almodovar, and a fitting end to the trilogy starting from "All About My Mother", "Talk To Her" and now this. Almodovar showed in the former two movies that he is a lover of women, but he is after all, a gay man, and this is probably his fantasy come true.
Though it can be confusing at parts because of its complex storyline and flashblacks, Almodovar has presented himself as a master storyteller and I was thoroughly entertained.
Rating: 7.5/10
More Reviews: Amazon; Rotten Tomatoes
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