An Education (2009)

Director:

Lone Scherfig

Writers:

Lynn Barber (memoir)
Nick Hornby (screenplay)

Release Date:

8 October 2009 (New Zealand)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

A coming-of-age story about a teenage girl in 1960s suburban London, and how her life changes with the arrival of a playboy nearly twice her age.

Plot Keywords:

Oxford | 1960s | Teenage Girl | Schoolgirl | Dog Track

Awards:

Nominated for Golden Globe. Another 6 wins & 22 nominations

Cast

Carey Mulligan	...	Jenny
Olivia Williams	...	Miss Stubbs
Alfred Molina	...	Jack
Cara Seymour	...	Marjorie
William Melling	...	Small Boy #1
Connor Catchpole	...	Small Boy #2
Matthew Beard	...	Graham
Peter Sarsgaard	...	David
Amanda Fairbank-Hynes	...	Hattie
Ellie Kendrick	...	Tina
Dominic Cooper	...	Danny
Rosamund Pike	...	Helen
Nick Sampson	...	Auctioneer
Kate Duchêne	...	Latin Teacher
Bel Parker	...	Small Girl

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for mature thematic material involving sexual content, and for smoking.

Runtime:

USA:95 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Colour:

Colour

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

USA:PG-13 | Australia:M | Ireland:15A | UK:12A | Singapore:PG | Canada:PG (British Columbia/Ontario) | Canada:PG (Ontario)

Filming Locations:

Ealing, London, England, UK

Company:

BBC Films

Trivia:

Carey Mulligan mentioned in an interview at the Sundance Film Festival that some of the most enjoyable moments of filming where when there were actors who only came in for a day or so, like Sally Hawkins and Emma Thompson, and she particularly enjoyed the four scenes she shot with the latter, whom she described as being "amazing", and called her acting "brilliant".

Goofs:

Factual errors: In the final scene Jenny and her friend can be seen cycling into the Bodleian library courtyard. Bikes are not allowed in the Bodleian and others can be seen chained to the railings outside. There are also 3 steps up to this courtyard which they would not have been able to cycle up.

Quotes:

David: Do you go yo concerts?
Jenny: No. We don't believe in concerts.
David: Oh, I assure you, they're real.

Movie Connections:

Featured in "Late Show with David Letterman: (#17.22)" (2009)

Soundtrack:

Smoke Without Fire

Nice sports car. Sure, I'll marry you.

Carey Mulligan does a beautiful job in the lead role, but Jenny is a problematic construction, and she's not the only one.

Jenny is 16 going on 17, and is markedly intelligent as well as quick-witted and self-confident, but she is also naive, particularly about men. She tentatively enters an affair with a fortyish fellow with a cool Bristol sports car. That much can be chalked up to naiveté. She is bothered that he is an unprincipled estate agent and a smooth and opportunistic liar, but not bothered enough to reject his marriage proposal. In spite of the fact that his proposal is apparently an impulsive response to a moment of jealousy, as well as the fact that he never-- not once-- invites her to his home, or says a single word about his family, she accepts his ring and drops out of school. That's not an example of Jenny being naive; it's an example of the writer-- the self-aggrandizing memoirist, Lynn Barber-- manipulating the story beyond plausibility, apparently in order to crucify her father.

Which brings us to Dad, a thankless role played with a stiff upper lip by Alfred Molina. As a father, he is straight out of an essay by an aggrieved teen-ager. Accorded no complexity, no depth, not even any consistency, Dad begins as a dictum-spouting martinet determined to get his only offspring into Oxford, but then-- in a character change so abrupt that my ears popped-- he completely reverses himself when Mr. Fortyish shows up with his posh car, lavish gifts, and equally lavish whoppers. Suddenly Dad thinks it's a jolly grand idea that his 17-year-old daughter quit school and marry an older man about whom he knows next to nothing. The father is a callow teenager's vision of an injudicious parent, a character sculpted by vindictive hindsight, not mature insight. (The mother is better only for being mostly silent and long-suffering. No insight there either.)

The film tries to seduce the audience, the way Jenny is seduced, with the fast car, great art and music, posh clothes and champagne. It might have worked, but only if the characters were believable enough to care a whit about them.