NEW JERSEY
Montclarion
Published: Thursday, April 28, 2005
Pedro Almodovar's Bad Education tells the story of two childhood friends reunited as men in Madrid in 1980. Enrique (Fele Martinez) has gone on to become a filmmaker, currently having some trouble finding a story for his film.
He scours newspaper ads for ideas, but cannot seem to hit on inspiration. As fate would have it, Ignacio (Gael Garcia Bernal) comes walking through his door. Ignacio is an aspiring actor who lacks experience and is starving for an opportunity to succeed. Both men see a chance for themselves in The Visit, a screenplay that Ignacio has written based on their experiences of growing up in a Catholic school for boys in the 1960s.
Ignacio's story focuses on a transvestite named Zahara, played by Ignacio, and his plan to blackmail Father Manolo (Daniel Gimenez Cacho), the priest who molested him as a boy. Zahara threatens to expose the priest by publishing his story of the sexual abuse that occurred in the school.
Ignacio's story speaks of young Enrique (Raul Garcia Forneiro) and Ignacio (Nacho Perez) and how they began to explore their sexuality and fall in love as young boys. Young Ignacio gets sexually abused by Father Manolo, who believes in his own twisted way that he truly loves the young boy.