Bad Education

Starring Hugh Jackman, Allison Janney, Geraldine Viswanathan, Alex Wolff, Rafael Casal, Stephen Spinella, Annaleigh Ashford,Ray Romano

Directed by Cory Finley

Rating: *** ½ (three and a half stars)

Scams in educational institutions should not shock us. In fact, nothing should shock us anymore. But this true-life story of monetary embezzlement in a posh American highschool in Long Island where the highest administrator pulled of an 11.2 million dollar fraud, is the stuff that so far existed only in fiction.

Bad Education turns the image of the idealistic educationist on its head to show us how big money is the big arbitrator of moral values in a society driven by greed and overt ambition. That this kind of high-level scamming can happen in an educational institution is in keeping with the value system of our times.

Bad Education does extremely well for itself in exposing the far from idealistic dynamics of academia. This is as good a moment as any to reveal that Hugh Jackman, as far from the monstrous makebelieve of Wolverine as humanly possible, hits all the right notes as Francis Tassone, the suspiciously over-righteous superintendent of the high-end shool. He is as cool as the foliage that covers his base and as smooth as the smoothies he drinks at work every morning. It takes a while for the stardust to settle in and the ugly reality to kick in.

Writer Mike Makowsy gradually eases us into the dark side of Tassone, the secret travel to meet his lover in Vegas. …Yup, Tassone is gay. And just when I was wondering what the hero-worshipping parents of his school would think of that, other murky secrets tumble out of the closet so quickly it becomes hard for us to digest the filthspill.

Jackman takes us through a life of shocking contradictions without missing a beat. He is the voice of stolen sensibleness, a figure of furtive aberrations. Giving the compromised character some compelling company is the wonderful Allison Janney as Pam Gluckin, Tassone’s right-hand woman and accomplice in crime. She drops out of the scam investigation soon enough. Then there is nowhere to hide.

The entire ritual of scamming is projected through a prism of surprise and acceptance, as we first repudiate than understand the mind of a man who has gone the other way to feed his hunger for a luxurious lifestyle. The scam is unearthed by a 15-year old student of the same school where the scam happens.

It is a matter of great pride for us that the campus journalist Rachel Bhargava is played by an actress of Indian origin Geraldine Vishwanathan who is actually 24 but pulls off the 15-year old’s role with impressive ease. Rachel is the third-most important character in a film where the villain and his accomplice take center stage.

At the end of the adeptly arranged truelife crime thriller we are left with one nagging question: why?

If only we knew the answer to that there wouldn’t be so many educational institutions that seem to flourish from backdoor donations.