Romance movies can rarely catch my attention, but this Oscar nominee provided an interesting and relevant tale of love, regret, and what it means to be an “adult.” It throws in the kind of teen angst that young adults relish and a protagonist you’ll always be rooting for.

It follows the story of Jenny, a bright schoolgirl who’s life is devoted (primarily by her father) towards going to Oxford for an education. Naturally, this means hard work and appropriate extracurricular activities. Things quickly change when a man, David, offers to protect her cello from the rain in his car. After a bit of talking, she decides that he is safe enough to ride with. When they see each other again, she agrees too go out with him and meet his friends. After this, a romance buds. She goes away with him for a weekend, lying to her parents. Everything is wonderful until one day David and his friend go into a house, which Jenny is mysteriously not allowed into. When they come out, they make Jenny rush into the car as they drive away.

Now, I don’t want to spoil it, but as Jenny finds more and more about David, she realizes she doesn’t really know him. And when she risked everything to be with him, she has to make her way through the hardships and get an education once again.

The movie is filled with the common idea of children that school is useless, and they’ll never use any of the knowledge, and even if they get good jobs, it won’t be fun or exciting. Jenny has to learn the problems behind this the hard way, and it almost made me want to grit my teeth together to find out that many of the adults were right about her exploits.

“I suppose you think I’m a ruined woman.”

“You’re not a woman,” her once-headmaster tells her. The coming-of-age story also reveals the hardships of being in the real world, and how very bitter and childish adults can be once children disobey. While it may seem at first the moral is that adults are right, I think the real lesson is that rationality, reason, and a degree of maturity are what make things right.

It is certainly more entertaining than a normal romance.