Customer Reviews

An Education

5 star:		(34)
4 star:		(25)
3 star:		(15)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Life is hard when you're sixteen and smarter than most of the people around you, especially when those people include your parents. You end up restless and bored much of the time and that, in combination with hormones, can cause you to sometimes do some very, very stupid things.

That's the situation Jenny (Oscar-nominated Carey Mulligan, best known to me from her role as Sally Sparrow), is in in An Education, the Oscar-nominated movie from director Lone Scherfig and writer Nick Hornby (known for such works as About a Boy. Watch it and realize that pudgy little boy grew up to be, oh, quite lovely). She's very much fed up with her life and when she meets an older man, David (played by the always reliable Peter Sarsgaard), who gives her the respect and attention no one else does.

From the start it's pretty clear what David wants from her, and it's quite clear Jenny is at least somewhat aware of this. She seems to be willing to go along with that in return for the gifts, the activities and a chance to be around people who are more "her sort".

David is a charming fellow, even able to get Jenny's parents to accept him and allow her to do things like accompany him to Oxford or Paris. Her father (played by the always reliable Alfred Molina), appears to be completely snowed. Her mother less so, though she's still willing to let her daughter go off with this man in his 30's.

David's charms are somewhat undone when Jenny finds out the various ways he makes a living, which include, but are not limited to, stealing valuable art from old women. Surprisingly, she's willing to go along with this, but eventually finds out something even more dark and unpleasant about David.

The film is intelligent and entertaining and paints David in a surprisingly sympathetic light until towards the very end. I say "surprisingly" because do let's remember Jenny is a minor and what he does with her is what's described as "statutory rape" in many places and is even called "rape of a child" in others. Of course this fact isn't really addressed, but it was always there in the back of my mind.

I also found the character of Jenny to be delightful! Very smart, very charismatic, but also vulnerable and not quite as world-weary as she likes to think of herself as being. Her character, and indeed the entire story, is based on a memoir by journalist Lynn Barber. If there's more about Barber's life that she can turn into stories, I'd enjoy that. I'd like to see Jenny again.

It's somewhat hard to classify this movie. It's not a comedy, it's not a drama. It's certainly not a romantic comedy. It probably fits into that tired non-genre genre of "coming of age". I think I'll settle for just calling it "very good" and leave it at that.

Based on a memoir by Lynn Barber, supposedly this script, adapted by novelist Nick Hornby (About a Boy), was one of the great unproduced movies in Britain. Well no more. A winning performance by newcomer Carey Mulligan realizes a complex character in An Education, a fascinating study of growing up quickly in an adult world.

Following some dazzling opening credits, we see a teenage girl, Jenny (Mulligan), who is attending high school in the suburbs of London in 1961. Prodded by her parents to study hard and take cello, they dream of her acceptance to Oxford University and becoming financially secure. A top student, she desperately wants to break out of her routine and, instead, attend concerts, art galleries, and experience more of the world. Her parents feel otherwise. One rainy day, a handsome, older man named David (Peter Sarsgaard) drives up and offers her a lift home. David is a student of life. He attracts and fascinates her, and what starts innocently as an unlikely friendship develops into a deeper relationship. He is adept at charming her parents into letting her exceed her curfew and boundaries, and Jenny gets to go to an art auction, Oxford campus, and in time, even a romantic Paris getaway complete with a sunset by the River Seine.

Despite the overtures of a fellow student, Graham, he is no match for the sophisticated, mature, and apparently wealthy David. Jenny becomes self assured and even insubordinate to her teachers and principal despite their warnings and protestations. She revels in her new life with David and his carefree friends Danny and Helen, and the foursome venture into the night for partying and taking in the highlife. As romance deepens and her defiance of authority and protocol increases, can marriage be far behind, and how will Jenny's parents react?

David is a mystery as are his motives. What does he do for a living, and is he for real? Perhaps his carefree life is not as glamorous as it seems. As Jenny finds out, life can be full of joy and surprises, and one moment she can be master of her own fate and the next instant everything could come shattering down around her. As much as her world has broadened and expanded, she also learns about humility and contrition. Such is the education of a girl learning about herself at a crucial moment in her life.

Director Lone Scherfig does a splendid job of telling a coming of age tale that hits the right notes. What this film does well is to put us inside the head of Jenny. We feel her yearnings and frustrations. We experience her highs and exhilaration at finding a life beyond her home. We also hurt when morality is twisted and she is disappointed and betrayed. That's not just good writing (which it really is); it's a well directed ensemble of talented actors starting with Mulligan. Production values are modest, but the period costumes and background music are infectious and authentic.

Sarsgaard (Kinsey, Jarhead) is quite magnetic as the manipulative David and inflects a convincing British accent. His scenes with Mulligan are affecting and sustain interest. Alfred Molina is good as Jenny's stern father, while Emma Thompson is on too briefly as a proper school principal. Olivia Williams is effective as a teacher who will play a significant role in Jenny's future.

Aside from its portrayal of a teenager, the film depicts the apparently limited options for a graduating female at the time. She either could excel academically and get a job, or she could find a husband who could take care of her. It is interesting how Jenny's parents are motivated by this mode of thinking and how it guides their actions. There is an aspect to the story which borders on statutory laws regarding sex with a girl who is barely of adult age. The storytellers finesse their way around this and focus on the relationship and do a tasteful job in minimizing the lurid possibilities. Subtle hints of racism are folded into the narrative, this being the 1960's.

In the end, it is Carey Mulligan in a star making turn as the idealistic teen who matures ahead of her own time and learns about life the hard way. Love that poster.

**Spoiler alert**...though the plot really isn't a secret.

The basic plot of An Education is slight, but superb acting and directing lift the story of a schoolgirl's affair into a study of regret, fear and yearning--it's often very funny, sure, but still a little heartbreaking despite the essentially `happy ending.'

Carey Mulligan was rightly praised for her portrayal of Jenny, but I have to say that Peter Sarsgaard is incredible. He's no creepy conman who just wants to seduce a young girl. He wants to actually be her, to take all that freshness and curiosity into himself, to have all that possibility laid out before him. At heart he's all too aware of how badly his life has gone wrong. His business (working for notorious slumlord Peter Rachman) is tawdry, and his marriage and home are shabby. He's deceiving himself as well as Jenny when he spins his dreams and explanations; and he loves to see himself through her eyes--as a worldly, exciting man. Of course he's happy to wait for her to be ready to lose her virginity, of course he's peculiar in bed: sex was never the point. And tie-clipped David can't in reality compete with his more sophisticated and wealthier friend Danny, so he's terrified into rash action when he sees him flirting with Jenny.

Jenny and her mother both know that there's something a little bit wrong with David. Jenny has doubts about David from the moment he makes an asinine, flattering remark to her mother, but puts them aside. If I have one complaint about the movie it's this: to me it's implausible that Jenny would have ditched her A levels, even though I know it's a memoir and she DID ditch her A levels. As played by Mulligan, Jenny is smarter and more perceptive than that. She's someone who'd see no reason to make a choice between university and marriage.

The supporting cast is fabulous. Jenny's bombastic lower middle-class father yearns for his daughter to be clever and confident, able to mix with the `right' people. Caught wrong-footed by the more urbane David, whom he sees as his social superior, he's easily played. "All my life I've been scared," he admits to Jenny in the end, "I didn't want you to be scared."

Jenny's mother is wistful for the days when she knew how to get to St John's, Smith Square; her face and body language are pitch-perfect as she waits up for her daughter after that first date. She's a mother who remembers how it was--and wishes it could still be so. She's both terrified for her daughter and wishes that she was her. She knows David isn't quite right, but she's still charmed by him. And she appears to be a heck of a lot brighter than her husband, but like all the women in this film, has had limited opportunities.

Jenny's naïve but she's no victim. I see that some viewers don't find the story credible. From a modern perspective, especially an American perspective, perhaps it's not. But having grown up in pretty similar circumstances not too many years after Jenny, I found it to almost eerily reflect the times, the persuasions of class, and the desires of a young girl living in them. And having had a very similar conversation with a very similar headmistress, I can assure you that Emma Thompson's character is spot-on.

Set in 60s London, "An Education" centers on 16-year-old Jenny (Carey Mulligan delivering a finely-nuanced performance) who is preparing for her 'A' Levels for entrance into Oxford University. Jenny plays the cello, has a keen eye for art, and wants to read English at Oxford. Her father Jack (credibly portrayed by Alfred Molina) wishes to see his only child in a prestigious university as a means of elevating their status as a family. A rainy day changes everything as Jenny's path crosses that of a smooth-talking older man, David (Peter Skarsgaard who delivers a compelling performance despite a rather weak English accent). David entices Jenny to take a ride in his coveted Bristol and Jenny finds herself slowly but surely falling for Peter and his sophisticated ways. The pair dine out in fancy restaurants, listen to jazz music in cool clubs, and live the high life together with Peter's friends, Danny (Dominic Cooper, who has also appeared in movies such as Mamma Mia! The Movie (Widescreen) and as James Willoughby in Sense & Sensibility (with Miss Austen Regrets) (BBC TV 2008) and Danny's girlfriend Helen (Rosamund Pike, who has also appeared in a BBC period drama, Wives and Daughters. Suddenly, the previously sheltered Jenny finds herself being swept off her feet and introduced to a sophisticated, fun new world she had only dreamed of in the past.

Inevitably, the once studious and hardworking Jenny begins to falter as her studies take a backseat to nights out, weekends off in the country, and even a trip to Paris. Her parents fall for David's charm and the social climbing Jack goes as far as to determine that Jenny might as well give up Oxford if she manages to get David to marry her. No one really has a clue as to how David manages to finance his high-flying lifestyle, though Jenny does find out sometime in the movie and begins to see a darker side to David and his life. There are more revelations to come before the movie ends, and the question is: Will Jenny be able to realize her potential? Will her informal "education" procured during her time with David be sufficient for her or is there still a place for formal schooling in her life?

I thought the film was beautifully made - the scenic setting, the 60s lifestyle and the myriad themes explored all blend together convincingly to create a truly poignant coming-of-age tale. Carey Mulligan (who first impressed me in a secondary role inMasterpiece Theatre: Northanger Abbey delivers both a delightful and heartbreaking performance as the confident yet ultimately vulnerable young child-woman. The chemistry between Mulligan's Jenny and Skarsgaard's David is credible and powerful - one can see that there's a certain neediness in David that is assuaged by being with the young Jenny, and Jenny in turn is intoxicated by the power she wields over David. The rather sensitive issue of sex between a 17-year-old and a much older man is subtly addressed and there are no exploitative or gratuitous scenes to offend anyone's sensibilities (though it probably merits mentioning that the age of consent in Britain is 16).

Final verdict - a fine coming-of-age tale set in a time when the sexual revolution and feminism were about to take serious flight.

A suburban London teen finds her traditional education replaced by something slightly more sinister when an older, more worldly suitor sweeps her off of her feet while placing her future in jeopardy. London, 1961: 16-year-old Jenny is smart, attractive, and eager to start her adult life. She's grown tired of the familiar adolescent routine, so when urbane newcomer David appears in town, Jenny senses a rare opportunity to shake things up a bit. Quickly falling under David's spell, the impressionable Jenny begins accompanying her newfound beau to classical concerts, art auctions, crowded pubs, and dinners that stretch into the small hours of the night. Although it is slow, it is a large array of emotions. It is deep, emotional, beautiful, and heartbreaking. Set in 1960s England, 16 year old Jenny is caught in a whirlwind of the "Adult life". She is torn between the adult world and her childhood, and her scholarship to Oxford. Peter Saarsgard and Carey Mulligan are fantastic. This is such a good movie, but it's definitely not for everyone.

You are probably reading this review after having read other reviews many of which - in my opinion - give away too much of the plot . Like Jenny (the lead character in the film, played by first time actress Carey Mulligan), this is a film of discovery, and the less you know going in the better. Yes, it's a coming of age story, set in London in 1961. This is a period well known by Nick Hornby, who wrote the script (and is responsible for a similar sixties period film: "High Fidelity"). Hornby based his script on an autobiography by Lynn Barber and the film is directed by a woman : Lone Scherfig. So this gives it a nice balance in the sexual politics department. Jenny is a high school student - in her senior year - and meats an older man - who might - or might not -be the one for her. That's all you need to know to enjoy this film. The Oscar nominations will tell you immediately that it is high quality.

The DVD special features include which is now considered the standard "Making of" featurette (eight minutes) in which the actors on the set tell why they joined the project. Another eight-minute featurette "On The Red Carpet" consists of more recent interviews at the Hollywood premiere of the film (after making the "film festival" circuit). Nothing revealing there. There are 12 deleted scenes (16 minutes total), most of which are too brief to matter. The most interesting deleted scene here for Hornby fans is a brief scene in a record store. There is also an alternate ending that, when you see it, I think you'll agree it wouldn't have worked.

There is a minor plot device about one of the characters being Jewish. This seems out of place and adds nothing to the story.

This is the kind of film you can best appreciate at home (even on a smaller screen). It gives you time to connect with the story and the characters without disruption you might find in a theater. Enjoy it! Discover it! And you'll remember it.

Steve Ramm
"Anything Phonographic"

Set in the 1960s, An Education focuses on Jenny Mellor. Sixteen year old Jenny lives with her parents just outside of London and has dreams of going to Oxford. it's hard to say if the dream is hers or her father's, but regardless, she works hard to get good grades and do well on her exams so the dream can become reality. She leads a very stable, suburban life: goes to school, plays cello, has a small but solid group of girlfriends and gets along well enough with her parents. She's also very pretty.

I think that is one aspect of the movie that is, perhaps, the most important. In the 1960s women did not yet have open access in to many careers. So much hinged on their looks. Unattractive and you could count on a life of working as a teacher and living alone. Attractive and you strived (and I think that is the right word) to find yourself a man to take care of you, thereby relinquishing you of any duties to work outside of the home (and, if you were very lucky, maybe not even inside the home). But if you found that balance of pretty and smart, then you had a few more options available to you. You could make decisions in your destiny. Rotten decisions by today's standards, but decisions nonetheless.

Jenny fell into this last group of girls.

One day Jenny meets David Goldman, a man over twice her age. David goes out of his way to show Jenny and her family that his interest in her is not improper and that he wants solely to expose her to cultural activities which she enjoys. (As a viewer, you quickly know that he is slick, and his interest is quite improper.) And as the plot develops, Jenny has decisions to make that are slightly outside of the slim pickings normally presented to girls of her ilk.

I enjoyed An Education quite a bit. I think it would be ridiculous if it won Best Picture because it was simply not good enough to warrant that amount of praise. There was no backstory to the movie, no build up to the plot. The ending was a little forced. But the way the movie was filmed was beautiful and I don't know how you could stare at Jenny on the screen and not fall in love with her.

It's definitely a film worth checking out.

Based on a memoir by British journalist Lynn Barber, An Education is the story of a 16 year old girl living in 1961 London with her traditional middle-class parents.

Smart and witted Jenny, who speaks French, plays cello, and has just won a scholarship to go to Oxford envisions life on her own terms. Before she meets David, that is.

David, a 35 year old charmer, takes her to concerts and restaurants, art auctions and Paris, easily seducing her out of her dream. And when he proposes marriage, she accepts him, more than willing to forfeit her education for the glamorous life he seems to be offering her.

There is a catch though, as David is not who he pretends to be, and Jenny is, unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, forced back to redefine her life by herself.

Despite the dark undercurrent of deceit, An Education is an enchanting story about falling in love and growing up, played with charming conviction by Carey Mulligan, who received a best actress Oscar nomination for her role. As Colin Firth, my favorite nominee in the Best Actor category this year, put it, An Education is an evocative reminder of "how it felt to be sixteen and believe we had all the answers, when we didn't even know the questions."

I agree.

Set is 1961, this film is about intelligent, pretty high school girl living in overprotecting household. Her parents are pouring all of their hopes in their daughter's education at Oxford University which brings her high school life to a rigid routine of studing, cello practice and essay writing. A young woman is dreaming of her future colleage life as a way to liberate herself from the stiffness of her parents' stifling expectations, until one day she runs into a charismatic older man, David, who seems to be able to offer her all of her dreams rightr there, right now.

Marvelous cast of exceptional actors in this film and their well developed characters are true beauty of the film. For any girl who has ever wondered how to achieve her own path to lifestyle she wants this is a must see movie. For any parent(s) deparate to convince their rebelious, smart kid(s) why education is valuable this is a must see movie. For any fan of really good art film drama with great script and fantastic 1960s feel, music, hairstyle and fashion this is a must see movie. Exceptional in every possible way.

WOW! This is truly one impressive film that deserves recognition and is one of the best films I have seen in a long time. I am not a Nick Hornby fan by any means, but I was truly in awe of this story he created. I hope he continues to write more scripts like this! Carey Mulligan, who plays Jenny, is a captivating actress and is going to make quite the name for herself someday. She is not just a pretty face- she has a talent too! Originally, what allured me to watch this film was because Peter Sarsgaard, who plays David, was in it. Sarsgaard is one of the better actors in Hollywood and never gets the recognition he deserves. However, that might be a good thing considering how he always seems to amaze me in his roles (except for The Orphan- honestly, I don't know why he did that film). He is brilliant, deceptive, and extremely polished in this role as the love interest of Jenny, the 16 year old Oxford bound student who wants nothing more than to wear black, smoke cigarettes, and speak French. The fact that this movie made me speechless is quite remarkable. It is a coming of age story that reminds us that no matter what the cost, life is truly an education and we cannot plan it out no matter how hard we try.