Review of An Education (2009) by Kristina P — 30 Apr 2011

Welcome to 1960s London, which wasn't much different than the rest of the developed world in the 1960s. Options were limited for women - get married or go to school and be a spinster. That's a little what "An Education" felt like. Jenny (Carey Mulligan) is working hard at an all girls prep school so that she can be accepted to Oxford University. While walking home in the rain one day after orchestra rehearsal, she meets David (Peter Sarsgaard), a handsome and charming older man. Romance ensues and soon, Jenny is contemplating abandoning her studies for a life with David.

While the acting was beautiful, the story wasn't really "new." Here, you have a lovely, bright young woman with her entire life before her and it's derailed by man. Jenny stands before her teachers and decries that their chosen paths are ignoble and hypocritical then demands to know why the seek to give women an education when it will only go to waste. But in the end she decides upon the same path, choosing to be educated rather than living a life where she humbly tends to a husband.

So, I give it 4 stars for acting but only 2 for plot.