An Education
2009
***½
Director: Lone Scherfig
Cast: Carey Mulligan, Peter Sarsgaard, Alfred Molina, Cara Seymour, Rosamund Pike, Dominic Cooper, Olivia Williams, Emma Thompson, Sally Hawkins
It's 1961 in London. The bright 16-year-old Jenny is getting ready for the Oxford exams when she meets David, an older man who offers a shortcut to the adult world. However, is this charming but shady businessman worth giving up a dream of first class education? Nick Hornby's screenplay, which is based on journalist Lynn Barber's memoir, transports us back to different, more innocent times. The relationship and its widespread acceptance (not to mention the slight anti-semitic undercurrent) are creepy, but this delightfully low-key drama comedy is not about a sexual predator but about the coming of age of a teenage girl. Were it set in the present day, the entire community would scream in outrage at the affair. The cast is terrific. Carey Mulligan gives a lovely breakthrough performance as Jenny, and Peter Sarsgaard is enjoyably suave as David. Alfred Molina as Jenny's pragmatic father, Rosamund Pike as the sweet but uncultured Helen, and Emma Thompson as the stern headmistress are the other standouts.
