Movie summary of An Education by Michael the Moviegoer.
AN EDUCATION = ***
“A Master Class In Acting”
The term “a star is born” has become such a Hollywood cliché, but it’s hard to avoid here. The ‘Wow-factor’ of the new movie “An Education” is the arrival of a major talent in new British actress Carey Mulligan.
Mulligan plays 16-year old Jenny in 1960s suburban London. She’s about to come-of-age at the hands a man twice her age played by Peter Sarsgaard. Their relationship forces her to question the relevance of her schooling and her father’s insistence that she attend Oxford University. But her man-friend is about to give her an education of a different kind. She will learn about life, love and lies the hard way. By living it, not by just reading about it in a text book.
With a winning screenplay from Nick Hornby (“About A Boy” and “High Fidelity”) based on a memoir by Lynn Barber, “An Education” is a fine piece of modern British cinema from a most unlikely source, Danish filmmaker Lone Scherfig. Perhaps her own Danish accent made it difficult for her to hear that Sarsgaard delivers his lines with perhaps the worst British accent ever attempted by a non-British actor. I hated it. Makes it hard to believe that Jenny could be seduced by anything this guy says, no matter how well Hornby wrote it.
But that’s a testament to the brilliant acting of Carey Mulligan. As an unknown, she carries the film in much the same way that Audrey Hepburn mesmerizes audiences in “My Fair Lady”. I think she has a Hepburn-sized career ahead of her.
“An Education” flirts with greatness but is ultimately unsatisfying. There are several strong scenes, especially between Mulligan and Emma Thompson, in which they debate the merits of a formal education with that of learning about life from simply living it. In those scenes, Jenny’s character seems to win the debate. But the film tries to have cake and eat it too when, after a heartbreaking revelation, formal education ultimately wins. This can only be true of the period, the early 1960s. I doubt this film would have the same outcome if it were set in today’s world.
DVD Double Feature: A girl is plucked from the gutters by an older man who seduces her with the promise of an education. Such is the premise for a play and a film that was so successful its title, “Pygmalion”, has become an adjective for this scenario. That play was then turned into a Broadway musical called “My Fair Lady”. The Oscar-winning film version stars Audrey Hepburn of who, in “An Education”, Carey Mullgan is a constant reminder.
Michael The Moviegoer
