Her hunger for life has been too quickly
At last, a
movie even the worst movie grouch can love. “An Education” has come quietly to
town bearing a fine script, two nearly perfect performances, and some
provocative life lessons. The fine script stays very close to the book written
by British writer Lynn Barber. Barber’s experience was at once as improbable and
universal as the story told by the movie – a romance between a 16 year old
student and a 35 year old man. And that sentence is as dry and boring as the
movie is wondrous, which brings us to the two nearly perfect performances.
Jenny (Carey
Mulligan) is studying for her A-level exams for entrance to Oxford. After
playing her cello in a school concert, Jenny stands at a bus stop in a heavy
English rain. Along comes David (Peter Sarsgaard) in his maroon sports car. “I
know your parents taught you not to accept rides from strangers, but I’m worried
about your cello. Put it in and you can run alongside.” We see in less than a
minute that Jenny and Peter are loaded with charm, and that one minute tells us
just how good this movie will be.
At 16, Jenny
is a top level student driven by a dreamy curiosity about life, foreign lands,
and literature. Lying on her bedroom floor singing along with the records of
Juliet Greco, she dreams of breaking out of her family’s suburb of Twickenham.
She will go to Oxford and build a life.
But David
bores in for small meetings which morph into weekend trips to Paris - “There’s
so much I want you to see.” He has by now seduced her parents (Alfred Molina and
Cara Seymour) who see his age and sophistication as all to the good for the
daughter they love. Jenny, already headed for a successful next step, is sucked
in by classical music, jazz clubs, and luxurious restaurants. Her hunger for
life has been fed too quickly.
When David
proposes and Jenny accepts, derailment is in the air. Her parents who have
trained her for Oxford from infancy, are charmed. To her dismay, their attitude
is “Who needs Oxford when you already have a husband?” She leaves school and her
A-levels behind. The headmistress (Emma Thompson) and Miss Stubbs (Olivia
Williams) are crushed at the loss of the student who embodied everything that
sustains them in their teaching careers.
Peter
Sarsgaard is excellent and credible as the irresistible mentor; a good
supporting cast tells us everything we need to know about the soil that nurtured
David and Jenny. But it is Carey Mulligan who makes the movie sing. She will
surely be Britain’s gift to the acting world from her generation. She is an
intelligent woman with good looks and a fine acting voice. Most importantly, she
grasped and conveyed to the audience Jenny’s essence, an inner certainty that
she will hold her core self back from her suitors, back from the world. She will
keep it for herself.
Copyright (c) Illusion