A Wonderful 'Education'

by Brett Parker

On its surface, An Education has the DNA of a crowd-pleasing coming-of-age tale regarding a young woman, but you’ll be hard-pressed to find a more intelligent, lively, and entertaining play on such a tale. Here’s a movie that deals with complicated matters of femininity and the human heart, yet it pops with sunniness and has a cheerful affection for all its characters. This film is so many things at once: a romantic celebration of life, a portrait of London on the brink of the swingin’ sixties, a meditation on post-modern thoughts regarding a woman’s appropriate place in the world, and, in Carrey Mulligan’s performance, the birth of a shining star.

It’s the early 1960s, and Jenny Mellor (Mulligan) is a bright-eyed suburban girl from London who is studying with all her efforts to gain acceptance at Oxford. This is a goal put into her head by her strict yet sincere father, Jack (Alfred Molina), who only wants the best for his daughter and wants to see her succeed in ways he never did. Jenny dives head-first into her studies and seems poised for academic greatness, yet lingering within her heart is passions that yearn for a more freeing life. Her love of French culture and classical music certainly hints at dreams of a lifestyle that stretches far beyond Oxford.

One day, Jenny stands on a street corner waiting to get a ride home from her cello practice when she suddenly gets caught in a heavy rainstorm. This grabs the attention of an English gentleman named David (Peter Sarsgaard) who spots her from his sports car and offers her a lift home. David seems like such a stylish and charming lad that Jenny goes along with his offer and is even a tad fascinated by him. Despite the obvious age difference (she’s 16, he’s 35), the two become hopelessly attracted to each other and thus begins a careful courtship in which Jenny is whisked away towards the more fabulous sights of London, seeing things she never thought existed in her section of the world. David is a hip and swingin’ smooth operator who takes Jenny to concerts, jazz clubs, art auctions, and even a breathtaking roam through Paris. Joining them on their adventures is David’s posh friends Danny (Dominic Cooper) and Helen (Rosamund Pike).

Jenny is smitten with her exciting new lifestyle with David, yet obvious complications with this relationship begin to surface before long. Can Jenny’s parents really be accepting of a man like David (the result may surprise you)? Is it wise for Jenny to take her eyes off of her Oxford goals and towards a more uninhibited lifestyle? Can a 17-year-old girl and a 35-year-old man really have a genuine relationship? And what is there to make of David? What’s his backstory? Where does he get all his money? Is he too good to be true?

An older man courting a teenage girl may sound like a creepy and cynical concept, yet An Education refreshingly scans the material for wild romanticism and biting wit without ever smoothing over the complexities of the central relationship. Director Lone Scherfig uses a great technical elegance in basking the film’s gaze with Jenny’s wide-eyed exuberance, so we see the beauty in everything the way Jenny sees it. This makes the film’s central relationship seem more sincere and accepting than it probably really is. It also makes the film’s compositions pop with dazzling juice. The wardrobes are stylish, the set pieces sparkle, and the actor’s charms infatuates. From the Stanley Donen-like opening titles to the vintage hipness of the film’s soundtrack, this film bounces with a stylish joyfulness.

Nick Hornby is one of my all-time favorite authors for the way he sees basic human types in the most sharply funny and startlingly sympathetic light. His most famous novels, High Fidelity and About A Boy are such brilliant portraits of the contemporary male mind that he has been branded a master writer of masculine tales. Yet when his works focus on female characters (How to Be Good, A Long Way Down, Juliet, Naked), he can be just as vivid and alluring in his characterizations. So while An Education seems like an unlikely place for Hornby to take on his second screenplay (after his unsuccessful U.K. adaptation of his very own Fever Pitch), it must be said that it provides a perfect outlet for his uncompromisingly humorous view of human depths. In adapting Lyn Barber’s memoir for the big screen, Hornby uses his trademark hipness and hilarity to show us the beating heart of a teenage girl, and the result is sublime. He masterfully constructs a penetrating and engaging tale of a woman with the same wonderful illumination he brings to his masculine tales.

Carrey Mulligan’s performance as Jenny has garnered her comparisons with Audrey Hepburn, a type of film criticism I’m often weary of. There was a time when countless actors were compared with Marlon Brando, until most critics made the realization that they’ll never really be another Brando, much like there won’t be another Hepburn. Still, it’s not hard to see why such a flattering title is bestowed upon Mulligan; she glows with the same radiant loveliness and British elegance Hepburn used to display so effortlessly. Mulligan pours such a dewy-eyed sincerity and glowing independence into the role that’s its enormously difficult not to fall in love with her. And when it comes to swingin’ hipsters basked in Britannia coolness, the American Peter Sarsgaard is probably the last actor I’d think of to take on such a roll. Yet he so shrewdly and surprisingly nails David’s nuances that the role is rather astonishing. Playing on Michael Caine’s limey slyness, Sarsgaard creates a stunningly convincing English lad in an absolutely dynamite performance. Major awards are due for both performers here.

One would be rather obtuse in labeling Jenny’s main conflict as choosing between a man and her career. In weathering the storms of her young heart, Jenny allows us to reflect on feminine complexities most young women face as they ponder their futures. Jenny could have a promising career at Oxford, but couldn’t such a devotion to academics and societal conformity lead to a stuffy life devoid of soulful nourishment and coloring? Should a woman be true to the wild passions of her heart, or should she challenge her intellect and obtain the strongest social role possible? Jenny also presents questions about what is the best kind of social stability for a woman. She is shocked to discover that her parents are content with her abandoning Oxford to settle down with a husband, as long as it’s with an established and accomplished individual such as David. This raises ancient ideals about a woman settling down with a successful husband versus using her own gifts to make her own way in the world. I think most women will be enormously satisfied with, and maybe even enlightened by, the path Jenny ultimately decides for herself. It’s greatly liberating to see a female character on film being free enough to have such perplexing thoughts and being able to take their own independent stance on matters.

With all the things An Education does exceptionally right, it does have its missteps along the way. I found Jenny’s classroom world too extremely immersed in her romantic affairs (would her entire class and Headmistress really be that involved in her personal business at this time in history?) and the film’s conclusion wraps things up a little too cleanly. But these are only minor complaints. It seems like nothing could hold back An Education from being considered a superior coming-of-age tale with more color and heart than most films of this sort could only dream about. For growing up can be a painful thing to endure, but rarely has it looked this enlivening.