An Education (2009)

Directed by: Lone Sherfig

Starring: Carey Mulligan

****1/2

The moral of the story may very well have been you can have your cake and eat it too but I don't think that was the intention. Maybe a smart person can get away with a few more mistakes than your average joe is a more appropriate through line for An Education. Carey Mulligan plays Jenny. An intelligent, attractive, Oxford hopeful who gets swept away by David, an older man, played by Peter Sarsgaard. His charm and tastes give Jenny a glimpse into the world she's imagined exists beyond her routine life. A world to which she was prepared to take the long road. The shortcut David provides creates consequences for Jenny that seemingly go unpunished.

There were several aspects of this film that I didn't really buy into but they were small aspects, hardly enough to ruin what is a great movie. Essentially, the problems with this movie proved to be the films irrelevant aspects. What David does for a living may have its reasons but in the context of the film as a whole, it wasn't important, therefore the fact that I didn't really like it, didn't really matter. The same goes for how Sally Hawkins short scene unfolds. Despite the conflict in her words, what she's saying is really just an extension of what we already know. Pardon my vagueness as I don't intend to divulge the spoiler that really allows this film any kind of mystery.

That mystery is in David. He charms Jenny and her parents to the point where a marriage proposal is fully accepted (something else I'm not sure I bought into). He seems to have good intentions for Jenny but some dramatic irony tells us that he isn't 100% honest. His lies are masked by his charm however and I was even swept up by it. Knowing how a movie must work, I suspected there was more to David than met the eye but it becaming an internal argument with myself. Perhaps this film would go a new direction. Perhaps this older man was the right path for Jenny. She doesn't make very valid points to her teachers who claim that hard work and acceptance to Oxford is the only way she'll go on to lead a boring life as a teacher or a secretary. Her life with David is fun and exciting and she's doing the things she's always dreamed of doing. There is tension throughout, but she appears genuinely happy. Why disrupt that kind of happiness for a character who so clearly deserves it.

Carey Mulligan is just great in this film. As quickly as she decided a relationship with David was going to happen, I was convinced she wanted it. Mulligan managed to wear her emotions on her sleeve without being overly emotional or obvious. In other words, she portrayed herself as Jenny completely. Her internal struggle was the conflict of the film, something that would only be possible with a strong performance. She's aided by great supporting performances as well, most notably by Sarsgaard but more brilliantly by Alfred Molina as her father. An Education could be catagorized as a bit of a comedy, thanks mostly to Molina but additionally thanks to the very smart writing by Nick Hornby. Rosemand Pike plays a ditzy, blond friend of David yet she's not over the top so we're not exposed to the cliche stupid remarks, but rather some very smartly written, stupid remarks.

Jenny and David's relationship was believable which, of course was the most important of all the relationships in the movie. There were others, however, that fell short. David and his friends Danny (Domenic Cooper) and Helen (Pike) seemed strange. While they shared his tastes, they didn't really appear to be the types of superficial people he's spend his time with. Then again, there was much unknown about who David was. Another reason these relationships may have left something to be desired is that so many of their scenes together; their trip to Oxford and Paris; came across very montage-like. They were not montages, but they seemed to breeze through so much in order to get to important conversations between David and Jenny. This turned out to be a necessary tool in order to continuously establish that most important relationship, but it did leave the others in the dust a bit.

Yet another great film from 2009, filled with outstanding performances. An Education takes a pretty simple story and makes it great with great writing, great characters and performances portraying them. While I'm not going to send any awards the way of Lone Sherfig, she structured the movie well. Aside from some questionable decisions, particularly the end of the film, she did her part. Everyone else, exceeded theirs.