“I feel old, but not very wise,” admits a 17-year-old Jenny (Carey Mulligan), a familiar feeling to students who have accomplished so much, and yet nothing at all. The education Jenny receives is not the one at Oxford that she envisions for herself in the future, but in the form of David (Peter Sarsgaard), a man twice her age. The self-proclaimed music lover cheerfully offers to drive Jenny’s rain-soaked cello home as she walks alongside, drenched and bemused. Following this auspicious meeting, David is ready to whisk Jenny off to a glamorous existence, filled with chic nightclubs, expensive art auctions, and most importantly, Paris. Somehow, this doesn’t seem like an ordinary syllabus.
An absolute gem, Lone Scherfig’s An Education will probably be remembered as the official debutante ball for Mulligan. Only previously appearing as Keira Knightley’s sister in Pride and Prejudice, Mulligan has fully arrived on the cinema scene, evoking a Holly Golightly-era Audrey Hepburn, with the haunted eyes of a young Angela Lansbury. Her Jenny proceeds to charm and devastate in careful measure, her gorgeous cello-like voice imbibing intent into each word. As she is wooed by the equally magnetic Peter Sarsgaard, we wonder if she realizes what she’s getting herself into. However, Mulligan and Sarsgaard ease us into their relationship, slowly intoxicating us with the luxury and beauty of what David has to offer, especially in comparison to Jenny’s drab 1961 English boarding school existence. Sarsgaard, disarmingly average looking, cleverly seduces both Jenny and us viewers, even as warning bells are ringing in every direction. As Jenny learns in her English class, “action is character” and Sarsgaard’s David is full of both. He has the impetus and money to remove Jenny from the banal and offer her a shortcut to the “good life.”
Nick Hornby’s screenplay, based off a short memoir by Lynn Barber, is delightful and buoyant. Several scenes had the audience cooing in delight as we fell in and out of love with Hornby’s multifaceted and hilarious characters. The film could easily have fallen into many a well-worn cliché, but with Scherfig’s assured rhythmic direction and a central sublime lead performance, An Education rises to the level of something wonderful.
4.5 stars
Directed by: Lone Scherfig
Starring: Peter Sarsgaard. Carey Mulligan
Rated: PG-13, 95 min.
