Superb An Education Makes the Cinematic Grade
Intuitive and intelligent Jenny (Carey Mulligan) is approaching her seventeenth birthday sure there is more to life then what is being presented by her dogmatic father Jack (Alfred Molina). He’s obsessed with helping his little girl do all the right things and get all the best grades in order to get admitted into Oxford, micromanaging studies and supervising extracurricular activities thinking it will help.
Carey Mulligan in Sony Pictures Classics' An Education
Dreaming of a life a studying English literature and of speaking French on the cobblestone streets of Paris, things change for the teenager after an accidental rain-soaked meeting with the charming thirty-something David (Peter Sarsgaard) quickly blossoms into romance. Soon, and with her parents’ surprising blessing, Jenny is jet-setting to France, spending weekends in Oxford and going to art auctions with her beau’s best friend Danny (Dominic Cooper) and his beautiful girlfriend Helen (Rosamund Pike).
But what happens when word of her May-December romance starts spreading across campus? Will Jenny’s favorite teacher Miss Stubbs (Olivia Williams) approve? More importantly, will the stern headmistress (Emma Thompson) allow one her brightest students to continue matriculating so close to final exams even though she’s breaking one of the school’s strictest moral rules?
Based on the memoir by Lynn Barber and working from a screenplay by author Nick Hornby (About a Boy, High Fidelity), Swedish director Lone Scherfig’s (Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself) English language debut An Education is virtual perfection. Funny, emotional and filled with insight, this 1960’s coming of age saga is a constantly surprising and continually fascinating journey that held me spellbound. I laughed and I cried, and while saying those things is probably a cliché the simple fact is that despite the somewhat familiar nature of the plot this film is anything but.
The acting is stellar. With Oscar buzz surrounding Sarsgaard, Molina and especially Mulligan, the whole cast does such extraordinary work watching them made me remember why I sometimes wish there was an Academy Award for best ensemble. For me, the person I couldn’t quite ever take my eyes off of was Pike. She does so many little things in the background of scenes, so many nuanced turns of the head, shrugs of the shoulders and whispery darts of the eye, the actress ended up making the insecure and needy Helen an indelible character, her inarticulate longing for Jenny’s future potential leaving me breathless.
Not that Mulligan isn’t worthy of the accolades she been receiving. Without question she is this movie’s driving force, her multifaceted portrait of teenage discovery and longing for womanhood simply sensational. Watching her transformation is beguiling and electric, a scene where she attempts to tear apart her headmistress’ treatise on an educated female’s future simply fantastic. It is a performance as good as anything I’ve seen this year, and if she doesn’t get nominated for the Academy’s top acting prize I’d be hugely surprised.
Not that any of the work done by the cast would be worth talking about if not for Hornby’s superb script. On one hand simplistic and straight-forward while on another refreshingly unafraid to buck convention and go in unexpected directions, this literate work channels a distinctly feminine point of view. Yet Hornby somehow manages to take this story of a young woman and make it universal no matter what a person’s age or gender, Jenny’s world one I think audiences of all shapes, sizes and backgrounds will be able to relate to.
Scherfig’s handling of all this oozes confidence. From John de Borman’s (Last Chance Harvey) luscious cinematography, to Andrew McAlpine’s (The Sentinel) production design, to Odile Dicks-Mireaux’s (The Bank Job) lived-in costumes, nearly every piece of the film’s puzzle is extraordinary. The director keeps the pace moving smoothly without ever rushing her main character’s emotional arc, building things with such grace by the time the last scene faded I didn’t want to see Jenny’s story end.
I adore composer Paul Englishby (Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day) but I do think a case can be made that his score is far too on the nose, telegraphing things a bit more concretely than I imagine Scherfig intended. The thing is, that is my one and only complaint, and the more I sit and ponder my reactions the more I think even bringing it up here is probably waste of time.
An Education is simply glorious. Everything about it makes me smile, the thought of seeing it again warming nearly every fiber of my being. Movies like this one should be celebrated, the rapture I feel one I can’t wait for audiences to experience for themselves.
Film Rating: êêêê (out of 4)
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