Movie Review: An Education (2009, Directed by Lone Scherfig)

The spirit of Audrey Hepburn lives on through the truly transcendent performance of Carey Mulligan in Lone Scherfig’s An Education. At times, I forgot I was watching the young British actress portray a strong willed English high school girl, and instead thought I was watching the late Hepburn in Roman Holiday or Breakfast at Tiffany’s. Mulligan’s performance radiates with the kind of sophistication and subtle energy previously associated with the great starlets of the classic Hollywood era.

An Education tells the story of Jenny, a teenage girl in 1960s suburban London. Her conservative parents have clear expectations for her future. She will go to Oxford and take a teaching position. Into her world of Latin grammar, Jane Eyre essays, and youth orchestra practices marches David, played with incredible sliminess by Peter Sarsgaard. David, nearly twice the age of Jenny, brings Jenny into the whirlwind world of 1960s swinging London, complete with fancy nightclubs, hot jazz, and French existentialism. Sarsgaard’s character is the kind of man who leads innocent girls to their demises with his suave sophistication and plentiful pocketbook. Jenny falls for his act at first, but begins to question her attraction to the sleazy David. An Education is set on the cusp of major developments in women’s rights and Jenny is no longer content to simply follow the whims of whatever attractive man she might find herself entranced with.

The charm of An Education is the way it adroitly deals with Jenny’s indecision. We inherently understand the relationship between Jenny and David as profoundly inappropriate, yet understand why Jenny would be enticed by the world he promises her. We see Jenny’s ambivalence reflected in the radiant face of Mulligan, who brings such subtle emotions to her character that a second and third viewing is arguably required to fully comprehend them all.

Scherfig’s film is not perfect. The ending feels a bit too easy, considering the complexity of the weighty material that came before. The music feels too heavy handed and the actors portraying Jenny’s parents make performance decisions that are often too “large” for my taste. Nevertheless, An Education features two of the most exciting performances in recent memory, and the script, written by High Fidelity author Nick Hornby, is teeming with life and vivid language. An Education is one of the most intelligent and engaging films of the year.