An Education (2009)

Set in a pre-Beatles London, An Education follows a 16 year-old girl named Jenny. She’s shown early on to be exceptionally bright and mature for her age and is pressured into getting into Oxford which according to both her parents and her teachers, is the only means for her survival in the real world. Getting into Oxford requires a significant amount of study and hard work leaving little time for anything else. While waiting at a bus stop in the rain she meets a sly and charming older man named David, who immediately takes a liking to her and shows her a life filled with fun, nice restaurants, clubs, concerts, and even weekend excursions. Everything is great until the reality presented by David turns out to be much different than she thought.

To start, a major highlight of An Education is the acting. Carey Mulligan as Jenny is captivating and very good in her performance as a young girl who, though very mature for her age, is not experienced in life as she learns by meeting David and his friends. By now there have been many comparisons to Audrey Hepburn and they are not unfounded. In fact, I would argue that this comparison was intended by director Lon Scherfig. There is a scene before she is whisked away to Paris in which she borrows David’s friend Helen’s (Rosamund Pike) clothes. The outfit she wears is a black sleeveless dress with her hair done up. The montage scene of her in Paris consists of her looking wide-eyed and innocent as she marvels at the surroundings and David takes pictures of her posing for the audience. The scene itself feels spiritually like a scene right out of Roman Holiday. That being said, Carey Mulligan does a wonderful job and easily lives up to the comparison; she is both a talented actress and an ideal subject for the camera. Peter Sarsgaard has a flawless British accent and is good at playing a charming older man, while giving a few subtle hints about his true nature, so that it isn’t out of left field when it is fully revealed on screen. This is also a major credit to director Lon Scherfig who employs enough subtlety and is unwilling to overly dramatize any scene keeping the films tone consistent while avoiding melodrama. Of all the supporting cast members, the one most worth mentioning is Alfred Molina as Jenny’s father. He just barely keeps from being over-the-top and despite some of the awful things that he may say, proves to be very funny and fleshed out and as a character.

A major aspect of what the film is about is the future prospects of a young woman growing up in 1961 London, and I think that it is for this reason that the characters in the film never seem to make a big deal out of the taboo romantic relationship of an underage girl with a considerably older man. For a young woman of the time, there are few options for a future. The film shows them as Oxford or marriage, with a better future leaning towards marriage. When Jenny asks her parents what is more important, an education or marriage, their response is surprising. The limited options of women is best shown in a great scene in which she asks her headmistress, played in a small role by Emma Thompson, what the point of all the study and hard work is. In the argument she describes a boring future of study and hard work leading only to more hard work and asks “what is it all for?” The answer is both depressing and uncertain.

The only real complaint I have with the film is the ending scenes. I don’t mean the way it ends, but the way the ending scenes are filmed: after the main plot involving David ends, the film sort of rushes towards completion without fully addressing a few details. It leaves the audience questioning just how certain things connected and is a little unsatisfying. There is also a narration that is sort of surprising because it’s first and only use is during the last scene. It’s a shame because it is a really good film otherwise. Aside from my little gripe about the way the ending is shot, I recommend this film as it is not only entertaining but an interesting look a different time with some very good performances.