An Education (2009)
Most people tend to think of one singular definition when it comes to the word "education." However, what we get with Lone Scherfig's An Education is a broader use of the term that encompasses two possible meanings. The question before the main character is which of these meanings has more meaning for her?
Jenny (Carey Mulligan) is an average 16-year-old girl living in England. She attends a nice school and even has a potential boyfriend that she invites to dinner. She is interested in everything French: the language, films, and going to Paris someday, and even has a hobby of playing the cello. Her parents, Jack (Alfred Molina) and Marjorie (Cara Seymour), want her to strive at school so that she can one day attend the prestigious Oxford University. This is her normal, everyday life.
All of this changes when, standing in the rain after a rehearsal, she meets David (Peter Sarsgaard), a man in his 30s who, as a lover of music, fears for the condition of Jenny's Cello, and since he realizes that it is a bit strange for Jenny to be riding home with a complete stranger, he recommends that she walk alongside the car. After a brief conversation of classical music, she asks to get in the car. David immediately agrees. In this way, Jenny enters a world that she only dreamed about that involves concerts, parties, and clubs, all through her relationship with her new "friend," David. Jenny is having the time of her life, but as she continues her relationship with David, her everyday life hits a rough patch as she puts it on the back-burner.
The brilliance of this movie is in Nick Hornby's screenplay, based on the memoir by Lynn Barber. It somehow tiptoes around the issue of the age difference between Jenny and David while making this relationship very believable. The dialogue is all plausible and natural as the relationship unfolds. It's not that the age difference is not mentioned at all, it is in a couple of places, but it's not the main focus of the relationship. It focuses more on the type of life that Jenny would be leading if she were to be with such a man as David.
Incorporated into the film is the dual education that Jenny is instructed in throughout, the first one being the one that most people think of when they hear the word. Jenny is currently in preliminary school as the film starts and her parents hope that she will one day go to Oxford, assuming that her Latin improves. This is one path of "education" that is presented and upheld by her parents and the headmistress (Emma Thompson) of Jenny's school.
There is a great scene between Jenny and Thompson's headmistress that comes down to a very simple question: What is the point of a good education? Is it to simply do hard and boring things like studying to only go on being bored for the rest of your life? The headmistress's reply is less than encouraging, at least for Jenny, who replies that this is an argument worth rehearsing because someone else might want to know someday.
The other type of "education" is presented by what David has to offer her in the way of his lifestyle. His education is more an education in life the way that he sees it. We learn a little more about David as the film progresses, some things that make him a less than reputable character. He is a sneaky, charming kind of person. The kind of person who is so charming that he is able to smooth talk Jenny's parents into letting him take her to Oxford for the weekend to meet C. S. Lewis. Even when Jack and Marjorie heard on the radio that Lewis moved to Cambridge in the 50s, they think that the radio must have gotten it wrong.
So are they just really gullible, or is David just really experienced at things like this? Probably both, as we end up finding out about how David runs his business with his other acquaintances, Danny (Dominic Cooper) and Helen (Rosamund Pike). The film sets up the choice for Jenny very well between the easy life with David, which would involve lots of traveling, parties, concerts, etc. or the other road of working hard towards a degree and earning what she wants out of life. Each has its own rewards.
The third act doesn't hold that many surprises plot-wise because you can basically tell where it is going to go. However, the entire film did have a surprise in its genre. It has been marketed as a drama, which it mostly is, but at the same time, much of the film is quite funny. Hornby is able to blend the two genres very well, without one overpowering the other, in order to create a scenario that only goes to prove the old maxim of there being a thin line between comedy and drama.
Also helping to make this scenario work were the great performances from the cast. Carey Mulligan, in particular, delivers a great portrayal of a girl caught between her two possible worlds. Peter Sarsgaard is equally up to the task as a man with an infatuation (or perhaps more) for this young woman. Then there's Alfred Molina, who's done everything from Shakespeare to comic book films to comedy. He, too, is wonderful as an overbearing father who wants only the best for his child.
All of these things combine into a delightful film that boils done to the critical choice that Jenny must make. Arguments are presented on both sides. The parents, as always, vote for the Oxford route. David's friends don't exactly argue for him as much as for his lifestyle. They offer as evidence a particular event that Jenny witnessed before that goes towards her being at least somewhat accepting of it, but only she can ultimately decide what to do with her life. While you may not be surprised as to where the film ends up, the journey that it offers is definitely worth taking. 3.5/4 stars.
Now playing in select theaters.
Also now playing: The Road, Fantastic Mr. Fox, The Twilight Saga: New Moon, Planet 51, A Christmas Carol, Pirate Radio, The Box, 2012
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