Bad Education

Gael Garcia Bernal plays an actor with a script idea for his friend.

Herald rating: * * *

Revered Spanish director Pedro Almodovar is probably most widely known for his last two films Talk To Her and All About My Mother, which charmed audiences and critics. Almodovar is now a name actors throw around when talking about directors they want to work with.

In Bad Education Almodovar has reverted to his earlier signature in a film noir tribute - a brash, camp style featuring familiar subjects.

Almodovar deals with the touchy subject of child sex abuse and the effect it has on its victims in a story filled with deceit, blackmail, retribution, and desperation.

Ignacio, played by Gael Garcia Bernal (Y Tu Mama Tambien), is an actor who drops in on a long-lost childhood friend Enrique Goded (Martinez), who is now a film-maker.

Goded is short on inspiration for his next film, so when Ignacio suggests he reads his last manuscript about their childhood together, Goded is intrigued.

The manuscript is called The Visit and has two parts: the true story of Ignacio and Goded's budding childhood romance at their strict Catholic boarding school in the 60s (where Ignacio was also molested by the principal, Father Manuel); and the imaginary life of Zahara, the transsexual Ignacio supposedly becomes, who is blackmailing his old molester.

The Visit is presented to us as a film with flashbacks within a film, and it all gets a little hard to follow. Almodovar keeps you on your toes with twists and turns, and although this prevents the film becoming predictable, you do wonder if he's just being a little too clever.

The result is that it misses engaging the audience emotionally.

While Gimenez and Homar (who both play Father Manuel) give unnerving portrayals of a child molester, their performances seem removed from the rest of the film, which rocks along at great pace and without much consideration for its characters' behaviour.

It's this cavalier attitude to its wonderfully outlandish characters that prevents you from emotionally engaging with them. However, Bad Education is well considered, and creates a visually rewarding, stylish, colourful, and intriguing experience for expectant Almodovar fans.CAST: Gael Garcia Bernal, Fele Martinez, Daniel Gimenez, Lluis Homar
DIRECTOR: Pedro Almodovar
RUNNING TIME: 106 Minutes
RATING: R16 (offensive language, drug use, sexual content)
SCREENING: Academy, Rialto cinemas