An Education

The multiple award-winning and nominated 2009 Lone Scherfig film An Education has one of the coolest title credit sequences I've seen in a while. And it is also quite a great film.

Based on Lynn Barber's memoirs, An Education follows the life of the pretty, intelligent Jenny (Carey Mulligan) in the 1960s, who is intending to go to Oxford University to read English Literature, listen to French music and go to classical concerts. Her plans are intercepted when she meets David (Peter Sarsgaard) when walking home from school in the rain. The much older David whisks her off her feet, into a world of glamour and art, with his friends Danny (Dominic Cooper) and Helen (Rosamund Pike). David thoroughly charms Jenny and her parents (Alfred Molina & Cara Seymour), but it is clear all is not what it seems.

I recognised much of Jenny's gradual anger at the lack of excitment in her life, which consists of school, learning to play cello (she needs 'hobbies' for her Oxford interview) and practising Latin, her worst subject. Yet, as a girl in the 1960s her options, even after university, are seemingly limited to teaching or civil service. It is therefore totally understandable that an exciting, cultural man could sweep her off her feet. The film uses a vibrant colourful scheme in the world of David, Danny and Helen-whereas Jenny's home and school are grey and severe.

Performance-wise, Carey Mulligan's BAFTA-winning turn is subtle and doesn't slide into overracting at any point. I have only seen Mulligan in Pride & Prejudice and Doctor Who, and this is the break-out performance to end all break-out performances. Especially as she has since appeared in Wall Street 2, Public Enemies and Brothers; and will soon be seen in Never Let Me Go, On Chesil Beach and as Eliza Doolittle in the remake of My Fair Lady (brave girl). Perhaps the reason she didn't get the Academy Award is the fact that her character was normal, there was no blindness/illness/fake noses in her performance...or maybe its the fact that An Education is a very English film. Either way, Mulligan should have another shot at the Oscars in a few years.

Sarsgaard is utterly charming as David, yet in our society we have been taught that the situation is very suspicious, and so really I was busy trying to guess what the problem would be that would have the relationship fail, than on the character himself. Dominic Cooper's Danny is suave with an edge, but at least Danny seems to have a concern about the Jenny/David situation, and there were points in the film where I started wondering whether Danny and Jenny would get together, though this didn't actually happen.

My favourite supporting performance came from Rosamund Pike as Helen, who is the apparent girlfriend (maybe) of Danny and very, very dizzy. She comes out with lines claiming that university makes girls ugly and when Jenny answers her question about what she would like to do at university-'Read English', Helen replies with 'Books?' It's the first time I've seen Pike as a really comedy character, and she does the job brilliantly.

Yet I also adored Alfred Molina as Jenny's father, who desperation to stop his daughter 'being scared' means that first he is 100% behind her studying to go to Oxford, and yet when this charming, apparently Oxford-educated, well-connected gentleman turns up on the door, he decides that maybe Jenny would be happier with a man who can give her experiences.

There were also good supporting performances from Olivia Williams as Jenny's English teacher and Emma Thompson as the headmistress.

An Education was a great film, and in my opinion I'm at a pretty good age to watch it and understand it-I get the feeling some people would just pass off Jenny's experiences and worries as her being a silly teenager, yet I found her concerns understandable. The film's director will take on One Day with Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess, and this makes me feel a little happier about that project now.