Many ages ago, when this ancient world was not quite so ancient, Nick Hornby wrote two novels, "High Fidelity" and "About a Boy," that would become seminal works to socially maladjusted young men desperately struggling with the idea of becoming grown-ups.
So perhaps it's ironic that he's the screenwriter of and the driving force behind "An Education," the new adaptation of Lynn Barber's novel, about a girl who wants nothing more than to grow up, right now, and the older man she meets who might just set her back by offering her exactly what she wants.
It's 1961, and Jenny (Carey Mulligan) is a precocious teen dead set on going to Oxford. She's intelligent and driven, and is being pushed every inch of the way by her parents, Jack (Alfred Molina) and Marjorie (Cara Seymour). Until the day she meets David (Peter Sarsgaard), a charming, good-looking thirtyish man in a sports car who gives her and her cello a ride home during a rainstorm. It isn't long before he's charmed her parents into letter her date him. And even though that's kinda creepy, Jenny thoroughly enjoys dating David. He takes her to fine restaurants, classical music, weekends in Oxford and Paris. Yes, there's something decidedly shady about him, that much is clear, but Jenny doesn't care. All the things she's dreamed of, knowledge and art and music and beauty and, perhaps most of all, adulthood, are part of being with David. All the things she's had up to that point, the other schoolgirls, her symphony practice, they suddenly all seem so, well, childish.
But obviously, there is something terribly wrong with the situation, specifically, it's that Jenny is still a child, just 16. And even though her English teacher (Olivia Williams) and her snobby principal (Emmy Thompson) make it clear to her that her best option is going to Oxford, Jenny sees being with David as a shortcut past all the studying and tedium that is higher education. This, we're sure, can't end well. And it doesn't, as David eventually shows his true colors, leaving Jenny to pick up the pieces of her life and turn to the people she's spurned while digging the deep hole she suddenly finds herself in.
The buzz in regards to this film is all Mulligan, and she's a charmer, for sure, with a smile that goes straight up the charts. Sarsgaard is always good, but it's hard not to feel as though Jenny's parents, fiercely overprotective, would be as blown over by his overtures. He's obviously a player and he's obviously playing them, and yet they fall for it, as easily and happily as Jenny does. But it's Jenny who pulls it all together, Jenny and Hornby, because while she is making poor decisions, it's so clear that she just isn't old enough to know any better. Sure, it's kind of a 180 for Hornby, but just like in his other works, growing up is a dirty, ugly business.
Genre/s: Drama
Release Date/s: 9 October, 2009 (Limited) (Showtimes & Tickets )
Distributor:
Production Company: Endgame Entertainment, BBC Films, Finola Dwyer Productions, Wildgaze Films
Official Site:
Alternate Titles:
CAST & CREW:
Starring: Peter Sarsgaard, Olivia Williams, Carey Mulligan, Emma Thompson, Alfred Molina, Cara Seymour, Dominic Cooper, Matthew Beard, Rosumund Pike, Sally Hawkins
Directed By: Lone Scherfig
Written By: Nick Hornby from the memoir by journalist Lynn Barber.
Produced By: Finola Dwyer, Amanda Posey
PLOT:
*Official Selection: 2009 Sundance Film Festival
*Winner - Audience Award, World Cinema Dramatic Competition, 2009 Sundance Film Festival
*Winner - Cinematography Award, World Cinema Dramatic Competition, 2009 Sundance Film Festival
In the post-war, pre-Beatles London suburbs, a bright schoolgirl is torn between studying for a place at Oxford and the more exciting alternative offered to her by a charismatic older man.
MORE ON THIS RELEASE:
Running Time: 95
M.P.A.A. Rating: Rated PG-13 for mature thematic material involving sexual content, and for smoking.
Filming Locations: London, England, United Kingdom
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