The dazzling bamboozlers of Bad Education
NO ONE LIKES GETTING OLDER, LEAST OF ALL ACTORS. BUT there are reasons actors often do their best work in their 40s, 50s and beyond: if they can free themselves from the desire to play likable characters, they can move into the far richer territory of playing polychrome ones. In Cory Finley’s white-collar-crime dark comedy Bad Education, Hugh Jackman and Allison Janney use their chief currency—their inherent likability—to lead us down a thorny, jagged path. As modern humans, we take so much pride in knowing everything that we forget how pleasurable it is to be duped. It’s fun to put ourselves in the hands of expert bamboozlers, and in Bad Education, Janney and Jackman are exactly that.
Jackman stars as Frank Tassone, the much loved and highly efficient superintendent of an affluent Long Island school district, Roslyn, in the early aughts. Under Frank’s guidance, the district’s academic record has soared, raising property values and thrilling parents, who are overjoyed to see their little Justins and Jessicas being funneled into Ivy League schools. Frank is the sort of guy who remembers kids’ names and what they’re
