Starring: Carey Mulligan, Peter Sarsgaard, Alfred Molina
Viewed: On laptop
An Education is set in 1960s Britain. Francophile schoolgirl Jenny can't understand her parents' fixation on Oxford University, she enjoys smoking and general pretentious ('60s) indie-ness and she is thoroughly bored of essays and Latin. When she meets and is charmed by 30-something David, she is swept up into a grown-up world of glamour, indulgence and a little danger- she begins to question the ideas she had about what "an education" really is.
I couldn't help feeling a little squirmy while watching this. It was not so much the age difference between David and Jenny that bothered me, but the obvious seediness of David's character that went just about unnoticed by Jenny, despite her supposed intelligence. Girl, his every pore is positively seeping with untrustworthiness! WHAT ARE YOU DOING!? These are the things I wish I could say. One can see Jenny's attraction to his lifestyle, but her attraction to him? Not so easy to understand. I put it down to Sarsgaard's performance- a believable character, just not quite right for this film.
But oh my god, this film is beautiful. The clothes, jewellery, furniture, paintings, lighting fixtures, EVERY DETAIL- it's easy to see how 16 year old Jenny was seduced. However, the salivation-inducing clothes and locations temporarily blinded me from the fact that this was a fairly run-of-the-mill coming of age story with some rather sizable holes in characterisation and plot. At first I, like the heroine, was quite caught up in the glamour of it all, but the films faults really start to show through in the 2nd half.
Naturally, the main question of this film is "What really is an education?" There were times when the script started to enter interesting territory but failed to delve quite as deep as I felt it could have. There were occasional clever insights, but these were disregarded in an ending that failed to be provocative. The result is that the film is definitely not bad, but also it's not quite as important or complex as it thinks it is, although there's plenty of eye candy to distract us from that fact.
Script aside, Carey Mulligan most certainly deserved all that praise and Oscar buzz she got for her performance. In fact, I think she deserved to take home the little golden man, although I must admit that I have not seen The Blind Side. Mulligan plays the role of Jenny with such conviction, charm and ease, even when she is being an absolute snobby bitch we can still love her. I personally find it hard to believe that Sandra Bullock could possibly have played a role (let alone a dramatic one) more comfortably than Mulligan does here.
She is backed up with an entire cast of great performances (Sarsgaard excepted) including Alfred Molina and Cara Seymour as her parents, Dominic Cooper and Rosamund Pike as David's sophisticated friends, Olivia Williams as an English teacher and Emma Thompson in a surprisingly small role.
An Education would not be a waste of your time, but don't expect it to turn your life around. Mulligan is lovely, some interesting comments are made and it looks fantastic, but you probably won't learn anything new from it.
Rating: 7
Verdict: An Education's main strengths are its stunning production design, great cast and an exceptional lead performance, but script and plot-wise its quite ordinary.
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