AN EDUCATION is one of the most talked-about films of the year, and deservedly so. Based on a true story, it tells the story of Jenny (Carey Mulligan), a 16-year-old student in early 60s London, who is swept off her feet and out of her humdrum life by a dashing older man, David (Peter Sarsgaard). The luxurious life of nightclubs, dinners, and trips to Paris she finds with him gets in the way of her studies to go to Oxford, much to the dismay of her teacher (Olivia Williams) and parents (Alfred Molina and Cara Seymour).
AN EDUCATION has often been reviewed so far as an average film propped up by a breathtaking central performance, and where the reviews have been right in the latter case, they are definitely shortchanging the film in the former. EDUCATION is a lovely, heartfelt, intelligent film about growing up and being a woman, and with the exception of a cringing open titles sequence and a saccharine last couple of scenes, lives up to any other coming of age drama you'll ever see.
The era (1961 Britain, before the 60s were the 60s but were still kind of the 50s instead) is perfectly chosen and beautifully depicted, be it by the costumes, sets, locations, moods, or accents. Nick Hornby's script is a simple, beautiful thing, never talking down to the audience while moving at a breezy clip, and addressing the question every teenager today asks themselves twelve times a day: I get that I need an education, but what exactly is an education, and why do I need one anyway? It's gently feministic in the specifics, which is long overdue for a genre that usually serves up male bonding stories, and intelligently sidesteps easy answers, preachy speeches, and the trap of character-as-thesis that too often bogs down similar stories.
The main reason to see the film, however, is the acting, which is what elevates it above a well-made period drama and into memorable territory. Much has been said of Carey Mulligan's performance, and the fact is, no matter how many raves you'll have read and heard, you'll still leave the cinema breathless and impressed. She's subtle, genuine, real, fascinating, charming, beautiful, irritating, adorable, intelligent, naive, and eight million different other things with such a lightness and grace that makes you unable to take your eyes off her, and very well might see you walk off smitten.
The rest of the cast has either been overlooked or deviled, and it's a shame, as they're uniformly terrific, starting with Peter Sarsgaard, who's received a lot of stick for his performance but is actually - dare I say it - brilliant. His accent is solid if not top-notch, and his persona suits the character of David perfectly: someone who's a hustler, slick, but not too slick, someone you can understand having a fancy car and a fancy lifestyle and a fast mouth but also someone you can understand being sexually awkward, insecure, self-loathing, someone who needs to date 16-year-olds to actually feel impressive. It's his best turn since GARDEN STATE, and indeed much better than that as well.
Alfred Molina is heartbreakingly funny and moving as Jenny's dad, a beautiful portrayal of a certain type of dad and a certain type of Englishman, and Cara Seymour absolutely shines in her handful of moments as Jenny's mom. Dominic Cooper is terrific as David's friend, a too-slick-to-be-true dandy with long black eyelashes and a wet pout who needs to surround himself with material belongings to feel good, and he's an absolute upgrade from Orlando Bloom, who was originally meant to play the part, but would have been far too wimpy and monotone instead. Rosamund Pike is great as well as Cooper's airhead girlfriend - most of the script's throwaway one-liners are hers, and she giggles them out with panache, beautiful, stupid and practical, and most of the laughs in the cinema came thanks to her and her timing. Olivia Williams is also very good in her scenes, despite almost cartoony hair and wardrobe that beats you over the head with the fact that she's a dowdy unglamorous teacher, in case you hadn't noticed; and Emma Thompson does what Emma Thompson does, stealing the film in three scenes, strong, withering, and passionate, highlighting with every stern look the difference between a girl and a woman.
It's hard to tell how much Lone Scherfig should be credited for the film working so well - she does extremely well at holding dramatic moments and editing comedic pace, but the few set-pieces where she actually has any serious directing to do are all turned into over-the-top montages of the kind you'd expect from Beeban Kidron, who ironically was the first person attached to direct. She's very much supported by a cinematographer, John de Borman, who can capture both lush and Englishness like anyone else (see his work on LAST CHANCE HARVEY, MISS PETTIGREW LIVES FOR A DAY, or THE FULL MONTY), and by Britain's most remarkable young casting director Lucy Bevan, who in addition to this film put together the casts of ST. TRINIAN'S, ME AND ORSON WELLES and THE DUCHESS, all of which feature one or more breakout turns.
In any case, AN EDUCATION is a film you'll remember fondly for a long time, which will make you feel young and wide-eyed again.
****
THE SAVAGES is a touching, moving film, that starts with a great bang and then slows down to a fizzle. The film tells the story of Jon and Wendy Savage (Philip Seymour Hoffman and Laura Linney), who have to take care of their estranged father when he is diagnosed with dementia and moved into a nursing home in upstate New York. But there are lots of issues simmering under the surface, and the intellectual Savages (he is a Brecht scholar, she is an unproduced playwright after a Guggenheim Fellowship) buckle under the strain.
