An Education, 2009

This film is good, but most of it is far more childish than I expected. Most of its attempts at elegance come off as mere pretension. The glamour and worldliness of Jenny's new life are too plainly spelled out for the audience (Jenny: I LOVE the Pre-Raphaelites! David: [EXTRAORDINARY! How did you ever learn about one of the better-known artistic movements!?]). Jenny is the one carrying the majority of this pretension, and I am certain that her character maintains charisma by virtue of the actress and not the script. The fact that her father is overbearing and silly also helps her likeability; if she had doting parents who never criticized her, she might just be insufferable. Aside from that, the film is quite realistic, yet seems somehow silly and flat in little ways until the ending. I liked it (see every other review for why), but I was expecting something far more polished and naturally intelligent. Having been through both of the struggles Jenny deals with (still going through the college part), I really liked the ending, even though I expected it. Few people actually like the easy way out...we feel suspicious of it. We want the hard road, which feels real and personal, which is what makes it so nice that that’s the one almost all of us have to take to get anywhere.

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