On Monday, my history prof asked if anyone had seen the movie, An Education. I eagerly put my hand up but no one else wanted to join the party. He asked me if I liked it, and I said it was creepy. He looked at me as if I had two heads and told the class, "Don't listen to her! It's a wonderful movie" While my prof and many critics seemed to have been charmed by the sorta-cute-sorta-totally-creepy flick, I'm can't say I'd give the Nick Hornby tale (I gave the man my heart with High Fidelity and About a Boy, and he gives me this?) a top grade. Except, maybe in utter sketchiness.
An Education seems like a text-book example of a movie I'd love. The story follows Jenny (played by Carey Mulligan), a Brit teen who dreams of living the life of an intellectual at Oxford. She's book smart, speaking French at the drop of a hat and referencing Camus over after school snacks, but she's yet to really get out in the social world. Enter, David, a charming man (played by the strangely off-putting Peter Sarsgaard). He takes her to clubs, buys her expensive perfume, showers her with flowers, whisks her to Paris and wins over her parents. I know, sounds like a cute coming-of-age flick right? It's not.
You see, David, is 30 and Jenny is 16. Perhaps I'm more conservative than I thought, but this particular May-December romance really weirded me out. I'm talking, I-was-squirming-in-my-seat weirded out. I love me some Sarsgaard, but the man just came out as a sketchy creeper from beginning to end for me. Whenever he and Jenny had a sensual moment, it got really uncomfortable for me - most notably when he suggests jokingly (I hope) that she try having sex with a banana before they actually do the deed (I'm serious).
