Bad Education, pt. 2

Almodóvar, trannies, Gael García Bernal--you couldn't ask for more in a foreign film, could you? Well, or okay, maybe I could--I still have some reservations with Mr. Bernal, but beyond that, the component parts (uh, clearly there are those beyond the aforementioned) should suggest that Bad Education is a great movie. My problem is that, ever since seeing it, I've been alternating between thinking it is brilliant and really disliking it.

I can feel the reader's wrath. Be decisive, you shout. But I'm not, so deal and bear with me for a moment here.

The story of Bad Education is fairly straight-forward. Enrique (Fele Martinez) is a film director who is suddenly approached by an old schoolmate Ignacio (Bernal), now an actor, who offers him a story that recounts their childhood in strict Catholic school. It is at this Catholic school where Enrique and Ignacio fell in love, only to be pulled apart by Father Manolo, the school's principal, who is also in love with Ignacio. Following so far? Good. Enrique decides to film the story, and two decades of secrecy and abuse start to unravel. The catch, of course, is that it would be too straightforward to film it like this; thus, the movie appears to recount something like four separate stories (the fictionalized reality of the boy's school, the fictionalized falsity of the adult Ignacio, the real adulthood of Ignacio, and the real present day of the film). Okay, boring plot summary sort of covered.

Given the subject matter, it's not possible for the movie to be anything but political. To discuss molestation in the Catholic Church without claiming some sort of strong political position is clearly impossible; Almodóvar wants his audience (maybe there was someone somewhere who was oblivious to the recent molestation scandals...eh...maybe) to recognize that yes, sexual abuse=bad results in adulthood. But more interestingly, perhaps, he doesn't make the villainous priests into completely black and white monsters. They're sinister, yes (especially the scary fat one), and horrible people, but especially with the actor playing Father Manolo there's something more beneath the surface than pure eeeeeeevil. And the regular people are perhaps just as frightening as the fallen clergy.

Gael García Bernal is very good in what amounts to, essentially, three roles. I suppose I haven't liked him that much in the past because I'm vaguely threatened by him. There's something perpetually...insidious...about him, and certainly that characteristic is well used by Almodóvar in this film. And for those Bernal lovers amongst you, there's certainly a good deal of gay Bernal sex. Or rather, there's a whole lot of gay sex in the movie just in general.

The sheer amount of homosexuality in the movie (there are only like two speaking roles that are not gay) is certainly bold, and is somehow not suprising, given the relative homoeroticism of previous Almodóvar outings. It's interesting, though, how little of the sex is portrayed in any positive light. Sex, in Bad Education, is secretive and manipulative; it is entirely about power play or about the act itself, (almost) no affection here.

The movie is very typical Almodóvar visually, with a sun-drenched Spanish color palette (visuals that should be used to more effect by other filmmakers--they look great) and always always a bit of grit. My sole reservation with the film (and I don't think it makes it less good) is the sheer harshness of the storytelling. The movie shows the worst of human nature, the worst possible things that people do to each other, and how they so easily get away with it all. It makes it a bit hard to watch at points, and a bit hard to reflect on, and not to be all Miss Cynical but Almodóvar's bleak worldview in this movie is probably a lot closer to reality than you would think at first glance (the movie is about a drag queen and sexual molestation after all...and it's a Spanish soap opera...). I'll probably see it again when it opens in America, and probably I'll hate it, but for now, while I can't say at all that I liked it, I think it's a very good movie indeed.