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Almodovar continues to amaze and astound!
With All About My Mother and Talk To Her, Pedro Almodovar explored themes of love, loss and redemption. Almodovar continues to explore these themes in Bad Education, his first full-fledged gay themed film since Law of Desire. Bad Education is a loosely remade adaptation of Law of Desire. It uses similar characters and situations but tells a completely different story. Unfolding like an elaborate Hitchcock thriller, we're thrust into a world of lies, deception, blackmail, mistaken identities and murder. At the core of this film is a gay love story between two schoolmates, Enrique and Ignacio that is thwarted by jealous pedophile priest, Father Manolo but there are so many layers to Bad Education, stories within stories, that at times it's a swirling eddy of suspenseful tension that unfolds like a piece of origami. Another theme in Almodovar's last two films that is also explored in Bad Education is exposing the human aspects of despicable characters causing the viewer to sympathize in spite of everything. How can you not feel sorry for Father Manolo as he tearfully says goodbye to Juan in the pouring rain? Yes, he's a despicable character but he's also human, and that's what Almodovar shows us, the human element that drives people to do what they do. There is so much going on in Bad Education that I highly recommend a second viewing to absorb all of the nuances of yet another brilliant Almodovar film. Highly recommended but not for the homophobic.
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