An Education. In Anti-Semitism.

I just saw the movie “An Education.” And indeed it is. It teaches you that anti-Semitism is alive and thriving. In this curdled film, Peter Sarsgaard plays an older man named David who meets 16 year old named Jenny. Within seconds of their meeting he announces he is Jewish. He proceeds to seduce her, boink her – poorly – lasting only for seconds, while spewing creepy baby-talk. He robs old ladies, is an egregious racist, calling black people “schwarzes” and then profits by moving these “undesirables” into lily white nabes so as frightened white residents flee the hood, David can rob them of their valuables. Oh, and spoiler alert: he proposes to Jenny, but forgets to tell her he is already married, and, we discover, he makes a frequent habit of seducing gullible young girls and proposing to them.

Nowhere, absolutely nowhere in this movie is there any logical reason or further plot development that necessitates David’s being clearly identified as a Jew, in all capital letters, bold, italic and with an underline – in the beginning of the movie. How odd it would have seemed if instead, he had introduced himself by saying, “Pleased to meet you. I’m Episcopalian.” Or, “Pleased to meet you. I’m Presbyterian.” Clearly someone responsible for this anti-Semitic diatribe got themselves a huge woody with this stealth bit of malignant anti-Semitism.

Why have so few people picked up on this? Or even boycotted the movie?

I guess they need “An Education.” Just not this one.