Movie Review: AN EDUCATION
An Education (2009)–***1/2
Five or ten years from now, when people tell you what their favorite movie is, don’t be surprised if someone says An Education. It’s not a movie that will speak profoundly to everyone, but this sophisticated coming-of-age drama is one that will make those who can forgive its weak, rushed third act fall passionately in love with it.
An Education tells the story of the clever, beautiful schoolgirl Jenny (Carey Mulligan) in a London suburb in 1961. Her father (Alfred Molina) is desperate to see her go to Oxford, where she will read English. And Jenny is well on her way to achieving his goal. That is until she meets David (Peter Sarsgaard).
David is an older man, a worldly man. He has fashionable friends and wealth to spare. He can even talk Jenny’s conservative parents into letting him keep her out late and take her on weekend trips to Oxford and Paris (with his “Aunt Helen,” of course). Bored with her bourgeois life, Jenny embraces his new wave lifestyle, Jazzy nights out and cons that keep him flush with cash.
David’s life, however, isn’t everything it appears to be. When Jenny decides to drop out of school and marry David, she soon discovers that finding a direction in life is up to her and her alone.
Jenny doesn’t come to this conclusion without the help of two very important women: her English teacher (Olivia Williams) and her school’s headmistress (Emma Thompson). We don’t see much of either Williams or Thompson in the film, but what we do see makes an impact, especially in hindsight. The beauty of An Education is that we, like Jenny, have to negotiate the relationship with David, his carefree attitude and his disarming charm. A bookish Williams and a stoic Thompson can’t compete with what Sarsgaard delivers in David.
That’s probably why that third act seems so incomplete. Sure there’s finality, thanks to a montage and a voiceover (Jenny’s), but I wanted more from both Williams and Thompson to satisfy a need for sincere closure.
At this point I should probably get to Mulligan, who plays Jenny and is usually in the lede of any review. Yes, Mulligan is sensational, so much so that it does go without saying at this point. An Education has been buzzing since Sundance and the hype surrounding Mulligan’s performance is completely warranted. Mulligan is strong, in control, and able to keep pace with some of the finest film actors today, particularly Molina and Sarsgaard with whom she shares her most dramatic exchanges.
Nick Hornby’s screenplay makes it easy to understand Jenny, but it’s Mulligan’s performance that draws us so deeply into the character. It’s not a showy role, but for any young actress today it was a role to get. The fact that Mulligan nabbed it and nailed it with an understated poise will be the reason we remember An Education. Once you see her in the film, you too will understand why, when you ask, “What’s your favorite movie?,” the answer could very well be An Education.
An Education, starring Carey Mulligan, Peter Sarsgaard, Alfred Molina, Emma Thompson, Olivia Williams, Dominic Cooper, Rosamund Pike, and Cara Seymour, directed by Lone Scherfig, is now playing in limited release.
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