pick flick: an education

Recommended by AB, I downloaded this movie right away but that was a month ago. I still have this long list of unwatched DVDs and downloaded movies and An Education is in queue. Last Friday while I was in Shangri-la to watch Resident Evil 4, Cine Europa was also happening. I suddenly missed my AB- we watched Alles es Liefde and I Demoni di San Pietroburgo last year. Checked out the line-up for this year and saw An Education and that made me more curious about the movie.

 An Education is about this smart, 16-year old girl who dreams of getting into Oxford. She then meets David, an man who is about twice her age. What do I think of relationships that have b-i-g age gaps? They say that age ain't nothing but a number but I think that it matters a lot, maybe when you're younger. Cos say you're 16, it sure is a big deal when you're dating a 26 year old guy. But when you're 40 and he's 50, the ten year age gap suddenly doesn't seem so big now, right? But when you're 16, I say stick with boys your age.

In the movie's case, I think that this kind of relationship robs Jenny off her innocence and I do believe that there are things that she should experience with boys her age. Not only David used his supposed maturity, but he also used his money to lure Jenny. He took her to places (ie. Paris) she could only dreamed of going and he took her to jazz clubs. She thought it was love but I think it was more of convenience masquerading as love.

Then again, we should consider that this was set in the 1960s when girl power wasn't the shizz. Like Jenny told her teacher, even if she gets into Oxford, she'd just end up a teacher and maybe being a teacher doesn't pay much and wouldn't allow her to enjoy all the luxuries that David has been giving her. So she threw away her dreams of a higher education and left school because she thought David was "it," David could provide her everything. Ergo, she doesn't need a fallback aka an education. But later on, Jenny finds out that in life there are no shortcuts.

If there is anything I learned from this movie, it is to rely on my own efforts and not depend on other people whether for my happily ever after or dream of being a bazillionaire. So there, looks like I would have to start working on my plans so I could be a landlady of leisure and not wait for someone who would sweep me off my feet and make me a shopping housewife.