An Education

Carey Mulligan is amazing in this movie. She is in almost every shot and is totally convincing, as an intelligent, sixteen year old being courted by a man in his thirties. Mulligan is Jenny Miller, whose story is based on a autobiographical memoir by Lynn Barber. It is set in the 1960s suburban London and when a man David Goldman, played by Peter Sarsgaard, offers Jenny a ride home, a romance flourishes.

Hopefully viewers will look past the gap in age between the lovers, sit back, and enjoy. Sex between a seventeen year old girl and a man in his thirties might be too creepy for many to accept, but it happens. Instead of making for a story of abuse and objectification, this story is wonderful, romantic, and almost like a fairy tale.

Jenny longs to read what she wants to read. Listen to French music. Eat great food. Go to romantic places. Her father wants her to go to college of course, but more or less only because it will get her out of his hair. This isn’t a selfish motivation. He just wants her to be taken care of by somebody. David Goldman comes along and shows her the high life. David injects life into her she didn’t know was there. She rejects her boring life. Her boring parents. Her boring teachers and fears the boring future that she might inhabit. Her new boyfriend David has got moves a pick-up artist could only dream of. Neal Strauss would have admired him. He puts the moves on Jenny and her parents, convincing them that he is someone he’s not. He even takes her to Paris. I love Paris in films. Especially films from the fifties and sixties. Paris transcends a location and turns into an oasis that satisfies peoples hopes, dreams, fears, and desires.

What is so appealing about Jenny’s character, and what makes the film so genuinely good, is how even as a twenty three year old man I can relate to Jenny’s feelings. She wants nothing but to live a great life. It isn’t that she doesn’t want to put the work in. She loves the work. However, there are no guarantees in life. She knows that David will give her this excitement, even if I wasn’t built on her own merits. Also, in the sixties, careers for women were not easy to come by, especially in areas that would bring her fortune. She sees boredom all around her and wants nothing more to escape it. The way she speaks isn’t precocious (That would suggest females of that age shouldn’t all be that bright) Instead, she speaks well, with wit and charm. She is utterly adorable.

I was reminded of a similar character played by Ellen Page in Juno. In the Cambridge Student, Diablo Cody said this about her character Juno “Women are clever, women are funny, women are sharp, and I wanted to show that these girls were human and not the stereotypical teenage girls that we often see in the media, just raging, hormonal, catty, image-obsessed bitches.” Bingo! Totally true! Her character Juno really is a feminist. However, Juno never came off as genuine and never came off as real. Jenny, from this film, does. They are both young, both incredibly intelligent. Both funny. But Jenny is vulnerable. People are vulnerable. Juno breaks down once, but too late and too briefly. Even Maximus from Gladiator cries and shows strong emotion.

Anyway, this is a very good movie, I was left feeling a bit annoyed by the thematic conclusion the film takes. It wasn’t all I wanted, but still, An Education is very good. It might even be great. There hasn’t been too many really good films this year. This really might be one of them.

Release date: October 2009

Collin Says: A-

You’ll Say: B