‘You might forget, but we don’t. We never forget. Ever…’
Happily, Bad Education is not a documentary about all the kids that I have taught, but rather HBO’s latest cinematic release. Misappropriation of public funds is not a crime that screams feature length movie, but the story of the Roslyn school board in New York, and their fast and loose definition of drawing a wage, is pretty spectacular.
Frank Tassone (Hugh Jackman) is the golden boy of education in Roslyn. Everybody loves him. But under the flashy suits and the practiced smile lies a web of deceit.
Bad Education is not a film about bad people or even good people. It lies in that grey area between the two. Tassone is not the second coming but neither is he the antichrist. He was just a man doing a very difficult job that made a mistake. The problem was he kept making that mistake over and over again, and the people around him facilitated those mistakes with their own lust for wealth. The crumbling classrooms in Roslyn stand as proof that there is no such thing as a victimless crime, but it is hard not to feel sorry for Tassone and his people. It is easy to imagine how one might get swept up in such a self-congratulatory culture.
Hugh Jackman is a bit of a coup for a TV movie, even for HBO, and he is a class act here. Tassone’s fall from grace is subtle and incremental, but Jackman still imbues his performance with nuance and grace, even managing to present Tassone – a convicted criminal – as a sympathetic character. The supporting cast are fine too, although Geraldine Viswanathan, and by extension, her character Rachel Bhargave – the school reporter who broke the story – is never given the screen time she deserves. To offset that, we do get plenty of Ray Romano though and that’s nice. Everyone loves him after all.
Despite Jackman’s all star performance, Bad Education is no masterpiece, but it is an interesting story told well, and director Cory Finley does a great job in keeping the action moving. It would have been easy to get bogged down in procedure and details, but Finley wisely focuses on character instead. The result is a portrait of arrogance and hubris that is impossible to resist. For any fellow educators out there, Bad Education is worth watching for Jackman’s impassioned speech about teaching alone. For everyone else, you’ve always got Ray Romano.