Bad Education (2020) Review

This film hit the US late last year but it has only recently made its way to UK and I have now watched the film Bad Education and here is my review for it. The premise of the film is based of the true story that documents the largest public school embezzlement in US history. 

Main Character

Hugh Jackman plays the lead here and he is fantastic here, honestly one of the best performances I have seen so far this year. He is the right mix of nice and charming and intense when he needs to be. His character is really interesting and the film even does a good job in making you care about him even though he does some questionable things here. 

Supporting Characters

Allison Janney plays the main supporting character and she also does a good job. She is a larger part of the first act of the film and is kind of relegated later on but her performance is really good. Ray Romano plays Jackman's boss and I thought he did a good job, he is just very Ray Romano here and he fit the role very well. Though there are some performances I didn't much care for, Geraldine Viswanathan who funnily enough I recently watched in Miracle Workers plays a crucial part here, but I never found myself invested in her as a character or what she was doing. It felt like her arc was dragged out a bit which hurt the film, also there were some other lesser performances that weren't as strong as they could have been. 

Story

The story is interesting, seeing this act occur and how these people got away with it is a pretty fascinating watch. Also seeing Jackman's character development is great and his arc is really the thing that carries this film. But this film moves at a pretty slow pace and just takes too long to get going, it takes an hour for this film to really get going. Also the most interesting part of the story is glossed over and it was disappointing to me. 

Script

The script here is really good, it has a nice blend of humour and drama. Jackman has some powerful scenes here but also has some nice funny moments as well. 

Style

The style of the film has some good direction and unique use of transitions. But this film very much feels made for TV, it doesn't have a huge budget and you can tell sometimes it drags as I mentioned in the story part of the review.

Overall

Overall, this is a good film, with an interesting story also with a great lead performance. It is held back by some things but it is worth a watch if you are a fan of interesting real life stories.

Rating - 7/10