4/5
Directed by: Lone Scherfig
Starring: Carey Mulligan, Peter Sarsgaard, Emma Thompson, Dominic Cooper, Olivia Williams, Alfred Molina and Rosamund Pike
To those of us ill-fated enough to be born in the decade of shoulder pads, mullets and metal, the fulness of life is forever denied; reared with the crushing belief that no time will ever be as cool, as free or as bohemian as the 1960s. What with The Beatles, Hepburn and the birth of free love, how could any other New Romantic, Girl Power decade ever compete? After an hour and a half of sitting through this gloriously rich, thick cut dialogue between the bourgeois relics of the 50s and the young champions of liberated pleasure, An Education proves, hands down, that the 60s wins the decade of the century award … and then some.
Adapted from the autobiography of journalist Lynn Barber by Nick Hornby, An Education charts the coming of age of one Jenny Mellor; a promising school girl, a well rounded Oxbridge candidate and an exceptionally gifted conversationalist. A coincidental meeting with middle-aged play boy David plunges Jenny into a decadent world of fine art, fine clothes and fabulous French music. Wildly opposed to the studious lifestyle envisioned by Jenny’s father, it is a road that leads to heartbreak and wasted potential.
Draped in an array of costumes that are best described as breathtaking, Carey Mulligan leads an exceptional ensemble cast with both flair and poise. Mulligan captures the perfect balance between an academic wisdom and a worldly naiveté and not only is she beautiful, but her timing is spot on and her delivery perfect. Peter Sarsgaard is disarmingly charming as the dangerous David whilst Dominic Cooper and Rosamund Pike support with an aloof sophistication that would make even Evelyn Waugh envious. If possible, Pike is perhaps even more ravishing than she was back in her days as a Bond girl and Emma Thompson is flawless, as always, in her small but memorable role as Jenny’s virtuous Pharisee of a Headmistress.
Together with Nick Hornby’s beautifully lyrical text, director Lone Scherfig creates a world of intoxicating temptation, for toxic it truly is, as beguiling for the audience as it is for the chief protagonist. The only hole, perhaps, is in the blindly driven ignorance of Jenny’s parents as they thrust her towards an Oxford education with an almost farcical and cringe-worthy pretence to pomp. Amidst the whirligig of artists, authors and glamorous locations, though, this frustration is easily forgotten as An Education slides elegantly towards its humble and poignant conclusion.
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