[MoriartyL]

I watched An Education. What a sad movie, from start to finish. The poor girl has no purpose in her life except for being pushed by her parents and being pulled along by this other guy; presumably the reason it's set in the past is that if it were set in the present she'd be expected to figure out for herself where her life should be going. But it is set in the past, and as such it's a very sad statement. I felt throughout the movie that it was inappropriate having any background music at all, because it's such a cold, dead-end story that adding in emotions like that doesn't fit. The romantic interest seems like a creep from the first moment he shows up, and yet the music is generic love-story music. It doesn't fit, because it's not romantic. Toward the end of the second act the main character has a monologue where she points out that all the education she's been receiving is utterly pointless. At the end of the movie, after the relationship (inevitably) falls apart, there's a montage of getting back into studying, with standard "inspirational montage" music behind it. But it's not inspirational, it's empty. The entire world of this movie is empty. Sure, she gets her life back on track. But she wasn't wrong when she pointed out that it was entirely pointless. So great, she keeps learning. But then what? What I take from this movie is that her entire life is going to be pointless, and that there's nothing she could have done to end up differently. It's sad that she had this ugly relationship, but it just opened her eyes too early to the sadness that was going to be there anyway.