Review of the Reviews

                                         
                                                                       An Education
An Education is a coming-of-age story about Jenny Mellor (Carey Mulligan) a very knowledgable 16 year old london school girl in the 1960swho is determnined to learn English at Oxford until she meets David Goldman (Peter Sarsgaard), an older playboy.  The positive  review is by Nathan Rabin, from the A.V Club, and it starts off by giving a brief synopsis of An Education and the screenwriter, Nick Hornby. Then Rabin goes on to summarize the plot of the movie. After writing about the story line Rabin analyzes Peter Sarsgaard's role in the film. He then states, " Sarsgaard and Molina exist in a world where lives are circumscribed by money and position." He goes on to reveal a theme Mulligan has learned from that in the film. Mulligan learned that she , "has the vision and self-determination to to conceive of a future for herself and a changing world where young women aren't limited to choosing between teaching and becoming a housewife."Rabin then ends his review by stating that the film captures the "ache of growing up" in a tender and witty way. 

The negative review by Jeremy Hellman gave An Education a 34/100 and immediately starts his review with a negative comment about the movie states that An Education, "attempts to impress audiences with its worldliness, but it comes off instead as an awkward, unformed teen fantasy run amok." Hellman goes on to summarize the plot and speak negatively about Nick Hornby's screenplay by saying here was a lot of deck stacking. He does compliment Mulligan though, but says she is the only things that gave the movie a "saving grace" He believes that everything about this movie is superficial and then ends his review with negative feedback. 

I agree with Rabin when he stated, "It captures with tenderness and wit the exquisite ache of growing up as Mulligan evolves into the architect of her own destiny only after incurring the scars, pain, and brutal disappointment that separate the genuinely wise from the merely precocious." I agree with this because i believe that the film does capture the ache of growing up through it. Mulligan learns throughout the whole movie about growing up with wit and tenderness, but it isn't until the end that she learns the ache of it when she learns the truth about Sarsgaard's character. In Hellman's review I only agree with him complimenting Carey Mulligan's acting, but not the part where he states that is was the "saving grace" because i really enjoyed this movie and did not really find anything  negative about it. 

If i have never seen this film i would think that Rabin's review is more convincing because he said very good things about the film and stated a theme from the movie. He also gave a good summary that made me fully understand the movie, and then he went on to give a theme he learned from the movie. I think it is good for reviewers to state the theme because it is what you will learn if you watch the movie. 

If i were to write a one page film review i would be sure to give a summary of the plot and the acting of the movie. I would also give a theme that i had learned from watching the film. I would be sure to say whether or not i liked the film. Then i would give reasoning on why i thought it was a good or bad movie.