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 In cinemas now [M]
Director: Lone Scherfig
Runtime: 100mins
There is so much right about An Education, so much in fact that audiences might be hard-pressed to find a more unique, funny, topical coming-of-age story for many years to come. Relative newcomer Carey Mulligan in the plum role as Jenny manages to nail the hesitant, self-deprecating wit the Brits are famous for, as well as exuding grace and just the right level of maturity for the role. Jenny is, in the best way possible, sixteen going on thirty. Smart, ambitious, funny, and as naďve as we all are in our teens, Jenny meets David (Peter Sarsgaard): thirty-something, worldly, and everything Jenny wishes she was.
The ensemble of actors is remarkable in its ability to balance quality with quality, and then some. Jenny’s swotty English teacher Miss Stubbs (Olivia Williams) makes you want to sit your Year 12 exams all over again and really try this time; her Dad (unbelievably prolific Alfred Molina) makes you thankful for gender equality; her new friends Danny (Dominic Cooper, who sent hearts soaring in The History Boys) and Helen (Rosamund Pike) gladden your heart that you actually attended school for more than five minutes; and David is, simply put, a right piece of work. A combination of subtle, clever dialogue, intuitive directing, and considered acting make David into one of those characters: someone whose slick lines and answers for everything make you at ease, then on reflection, make you squirm. His mix of saccharine ‘Yes Ma’am, no Sir,’ to Jenny’s parents puts the viewers on edge with the feeling that the “Davids” of this world shouldn’t be trusted further than the stretch of their disingenuous smile. Sarsgaard pulls it off so well, you’re left wondering if art is imitating life.
Director Lone Scherfig will be in demand after this effort, only her second English language film. In fact, she couldn’t have found a better partner in writer Nick Hornby, who is tried and tested in heartfelt, yet audience-pleasing screenwriting. Though the film was based on a part of iconic British journalist Lynn Barber’s memoir, Hornby does everyone a favour by not trying to moralise and justify what the protagonist is going through – Jenny thinks for herself, as the prickly Barber always has. If things don’t turn out as planned, Jenny isn’t simpering and apologetic; which is part of the reason audiences like her so much.
Between the impressive characterisation, the crisp, no-fuss photography, and the nostalgic soundtrack, An Education paints an amusing and downright British tale of wayward youth.
****˝
KATIA NIZIC
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