For this week's post, we are posting a review written by one of our followers, and good friends, Leila. Done on An Education, we are sure you will find the post very interesting! Thank you for following, and we encourage all of our readers and followers to send in reviews and ideas for future reviews!

An Education

Set in early 1960s, young and precocious 16 year- old Jenny dreams of life beyond her dreary high school doldrums - listening to French albums, smoking with her high schools girlfriends, dreaming of college life. She yearns for the glamorous life she feels like she know all about but has yet to experience. Enter not -so- young and dashing, David. Older than Jenny, he swoops and charms Jenny and her parents as if the answer to all of their prayers, and shows her the life she has been dreaming of: jazz clubs, extravagant trips, glamorous friends and anything she wants. But when David offers to take her away permanently and glide her into this perfect life, will she give her up her future to this exciting life?

Carey Mulligan is astonishing as young Jenny- she is the perfect combination of innocent youth wanting to grow up and an old world soul. You would think being a sheltered high school girl, she would not fit in to the high society that David and his friends have created for themselves but she quotes French, speaks of art and literature naturally, and becomes more charming that her not-so- worthy counterparts. As David (played with smooth subtlety by Peter Sarsgaard) is charming and caring, Jenny is the one who is truly captivating as she is smart, sassy and steals almost every scene she is in. As I said, almost-- the only competition she has in this arena is Rosamund Pike as the ditzy Helen, the girlfriend to David ‘s best friend Danny (Dominic Cooper). Helen is suave but brings comic relief, as she is the anti-Jenny. She detests anything college related and urges not Jenny to “not be one of those”. You don’t want to like her, but she is draws you in completely- as much as the movie itself does.

And as any love, the movie isn’t perfect. Granted England might have had a slightly different culture than America in the early 60s, but the idea that parents of a 16-year-old girl falling prey to the charms of a 35-year-old man courting their daughter seems a little far-fetched. And when David deepens their relationship, the parents seem thrilled that this young man is wanting to change their daughter’s future that easily and not put up a fight, especially when David might seem to good to be true.


The real question of the movie never really stems from the moral questions on whether this May-December romance is appropriate, but more of whether Jenny the feminist can survive the limited choices of an education vs. the need to be with a man who can provide for her, and would she become the brunette version of Helen, trophy girlfriend but co-dependent on the fun lifestyle? And that is what is interesting about this movie, because one could argue that after 40 years of the movie’s time period, and with slightly different circumstances, it’s still a relative question for women today.

GRADE: A