An Education User Reviews

I am so, so sick of all the anti Semitic bunk. This is almost a true life story that could happen to any young girl in this day and age. I am not giving away the plot but see this movie; you won't be disappointed!

12/14/2009, 10:57 pm

A fantastic movie which "Educates" as to how age-old anti-Semetism can be presented in a subtle modern and mainstream format. This is a marking point in history to remember, along with the behavior of Molodavian Christians, the Nazis who turned up to disrupt Chabad Chanukah celebrations, The Rabbi who was attacked in Vienna, "International Punch a Jew in the Face day", the 100% increase in antisemetic incidents in France (350 recorded), the British media's promotion of antisemitism on the "Israel Lobby", combined with the coddling of antisemites like Ahmadinerjad, the swelling hatred pervasive in the largest blogs in America and the UK mainstream media. That is just a small overview of the recent news in the Jewish world. Nothing to see, move along now.

12/14/2009, 3:50 pm

The film was NOT Anti-semitic. There were few references to Jews and those references were in the context of the culture and the times of post war England. David is a cad, lacking courage, but it has nothing to do with the the few, earlier references in the film, to his being a jew. Really, this was a finely crafted film with an amazingly subtle performance from the star (Carey Mulligan) that might just get her an Academy award nomination. The film is a minimalistic, simple story of love and coming of age.

12/12/2009, 12:18 am

Viewers must be aware that this is a blatant anti Semitic movie dressed as a love story, girl coming to age. As such it is amazing that no professional critic addressed the issue. No surprise coming from the BBC.

12/11/2009, 2:53 pm

I am proudly Jewish. I grew up in England and lived and worked in London in the eral of the movie. In my view it portrays the paradoxes of attitudes that existed and may well still exist in England (and in many other developed societies too). Here was a society that was both tolerant and yet could be xenophobic, both among the educated and less well educated (compare father and headmistress). Hornby is just illustrating those attitudes and in my view is in no way endorsing them. In some ways several of the reactions to the movie are analogous to those that continue to be evoked by Shakespeare's "Merchant of Venice". Was Shakespeare himself anti-semitic, or was he reflecting the prejudice of the time in a country from which Jews had been banished and where most individuals had never met a Jew? In some of the words he puts in Shylock's mouth he clearly empathizes with the angst expressed by him. I can't find much in David's explanation of his caddish, dishonest behavior that begin to compare with those expressions. I view this as an outstanding, thought provoking movie..

12/07/2009, 5:32 pm

A most excellent and beautiful movie about growing up and learning to be responsible in the choices one has to make in his or her life.

12/07/2009, 2:21 am

All right. So David, the main character, was Jewish and he embodied some flaws. But he also possessed A LOT of good qualities too, such as being thoughtful by having Jenny put her cello in his car when it was raining, exposing Jenny to the arts and culture, not taking advantage of Jenny until she was ready, making a decent woman of Jenny, leaving Jenny alone after she dumped him. I think it was important for the viewers--and Jenny--to know that David was Jewish because I think that was one of the reasons she was attracted to him--he was different! From what I've read on this message board, I'm so sick of people calling this work of art anti-semitic due to PC issues. Sometimes they're warranted, but sometimes they're not. In this case, they're not. Pretty soon artists will be afraid to say anything because of PC issues. As far as I'm concerned, unjustly calling a film anti-semitic due to PC issues is another form of censorship.

12/06/2009, 12:05 pm

As a non-Jew, I left the movie wondering if the director was an anti-semite. The Jewish character embodied all the negative Jewish stereotypes. He manipulated financial transactions, he was a cheat, and a thief. He even had beady eyes. The innovation of the movie was that the Jew was also a sexual predator.

11/30/2009, 3:07 pm

I was extremely dissapointed in the protrayal of the main character, with so many dispicable flaws, as Jewish. I have Never seen such antisemitism demonstrated in any movie as in this one. So brazen, and unimaginative, they couldn't even demonstrate the talent to hide it with subtle undertones. The writer, producer, actors and even the critics are all conspiritors in propagating such a malicious and undeserving message.. Thankfully, no one will be around after 2012 to see this demonstration of hatred hidden behind cinema "pseudo-art" again. SHAMEFUL.

11/27/2009, 10:16 pm