An Education

In the harmless late-summer entry Post Grad, Alexis Bledel plays Ryden Malby, a recent college graduate whose life isn’t playing out just like she thought it would right after graduation.

If I was a recent grad myself, I could feel pressured by this movie, you know, by the expectation not to feel like Ryden…like a big ol’ loser.

But, thankfully, I graduated from college a few years ago, so there’s no fretting, and I can enjoy the movie for what it is: a feel-better-som’in’-will-turn-up movie with no pretense of excellence.

Not that the movie sucks.

Not at all – Post Grad knows its place in the canon of teen/young adult movies, and it knows it’s a showcase for Bledel, who, by the way, must have the bluest, most drawing eyes in the world (they’re crazy blue, like a tropical beach blue), and, more importantly, it knows that the audience will find some enjoyment in it.

It doesn’t push its luck much, and aims to be a movie the entire family can watch. It plays it safe – a bit ironic, since ultimately, it pushes Ryden to take a risk.

But let me not get ahead of myself.

Ryden has just survived four years of higher ed, and she’s bushy-tailed-excited about entering the work force.

She has her sights set on a fancy publishing company because she likes to read – she wants to discover the next great American novel (so glad the filmmakers didn’t make her a fashion magazine wannabe) – but her dreams are dashed when her college rival gets the job over her because she knows someone who knows someone….

Hey, that happens, kids, so kudos to the movie for putting it out there.

Forced to move back home with her eccentric family – dad, (Michael Keaton), is a luggage retailer/bumbling entrepreneur, her cute-moppet little brother communicates via hand-puppet, her grandma (Carol Burnett) is obsessed with her own death, and her mom (Jane Lynch) is all of their straight man – Ryden’s at a quarter-life crossroads.

Discouraged by her job prospects, broke, and without a car (too bad the whole Cash for Clunkers thing is not an option), the girl’s in the dumps so bad she doesn’t even realize her BFF Adam (TV’s Friday Night Lights) is totally in love with her…but not quite so bad that she doesn’t fall for her hot Brazilian neighbor (Rodrigo Santoro) for just a little bit.

Post Grad is about a girl figuring it all out. We’ve all been there, right? So, hey, if you’re looking for some light fare at the movies this weekend, this one’s for you.

If anything, you’ll get to see Bledel, who has taken everything she learned at the Rory Gilmore School of Being – if you don’t get the reference…ew – and turned it into a winning performance.

She and her eyes are worth the price of admission alone.

My Rating ***

Photo: Fox Searchlight Pictures.