An Education

Set in London in 1962, An Education tells the story of Jenny (Carey Mulligan), a bright, ambitious sixteen year old who hopes to attend Oxford, become cultured and literate and leave her modest suburban beginnings behind.   Played with mischievous brilliance by Carey Mulligan (Pride and Prejudice), Jenny is charming and silly and cynical and smart, and the film’s early scenes where she lounges with her schoolgirl friends, planning glittering futures and giggling about boys, are perfectly done.

But then Jenny meets David (Peter Sarsgaard), a dapper con man nearly twice her age.   She is waiting at a bus stop in a downpour, bedraggled and clutching her cello and book bag; David rolls up and acknowledges that while it would be reckless for her to accept a ride from him, couldn’t he just give her cello a lift home?  David is taken with Jenny and he charms his way into her life and into the confidence of her parents.  Allowing them to believe that he and their daughter are well chaperoned, he introduces Jenny to a world of jazz clubs and champagne, restaurants and race tracks, extravagance and glamour.  It’s all fun, David tells her, and while Jenny luxuriates in his attention and lavish lifestyle, she starts to question her own well laid plans.  What she doesn’t question is David himself; with the innocent confidence of an adolescent, she believes she knows everything she needs to about her captivating paramour.

An Education is rightly described as a coming of age film, and adults watching the story unfold will assume that naïve Jenny is headed for a very long fall.  But the film is more complicated than that.  Screenwriter Nick Hornby  surrounds Jenny with interesting adults who have taken different life paths; as Jenny rethinks her future, they revisit their own decisions (with the exception of Emma Thompson’s hard as nails headmistress – she never wavers).  So while the film is all about Jenny’s experience, the story is thought provoking in a bigger way, with an underlying seriousness of tone even in lighthearted moments.  Unlike most coming of age pictures, An Education is likely to appeal to adults more than teens, and given the older man – younger woman plot, that may be just as well.

The acting is terrific all around.  Carey Mulligan is already on the short list for a Best Actress nod.  Peter Sarsgaard plays David with vulnerability and a touch of tenderness, so that we have sympathy for him even though we know he’s probably a louse.    Alfred Molina is a revelation as Jenny’s buttoned up father who wants the world for his daughter even though he rarely strays more than a mile or two from his house.  And Olivia Williams is lovely as the teacher who stoically stands by Jenny even when she is at her teenaged worst. Every performance is worth seeing but, fair warning, parents of teens may find this film disturbing.  Playing in limited release around the country, mostly major metro areas.