An Education, 2009

An Education, 2009
Director: Lone Scherfig
Cast: Carey Mulligan, Olivia Williams, Peter Sarsgaard, Alfred Molina



Education in short: Jenny (Carey Mulligan) a very bright girl on the cusp of her 17th birthday, finds herself in a whirlwind romance with the much older David ( Peter Sarsgaard). Prior to meeting him, Jenny was working hard at secondary school to ensure getting to Oxford University. When she sees the lifestyle David can provide, one she never imagined could be hers, she's hooked and thoughts of Oxford are forgotten.

Stage: home theatre
Preps: None in perticular. Came in the row, wasn't recommended or something, just a thing on my disk from last year that I needed to see :)


Reality: Education has some really strong points to vote for it. It's an english movie. I just love english speaking (UK english speaking) cast. A bit naughty and lovely, the sound of it. Usually also the movies have some perspective or some dramatic scenes, some basic idea you should nourish after seeing it. This one is one alike - relatively unknown actors that come upfront with good dialogue and irony that pours out of them.

Jenny, living in a "normal" - to my standards, weird, family, is daily faced with stupidity her father pours into her. For instance, comments like "Knowing a famous author is better than becoming one. It shows you're connected.", with those, her father neglects all wishes Jenny has and fulfills his own dreams of pushing his daughter to the best university there is - Oxford. She, on the other hand, handles this with intelligence and shoots back like a rifle with witty comments and ironic/sarcastic piece of mind she posesses.

The irony breaks when this Mary Clarence (the holy child that is going to be at least world leader in her father's eyes) leaves the whole package for a man. It turns out that even her father thinks the prime goal of a young lady should be getting a husband and within this attempt, getting well situated. It doesn't matter what happens with university, education, as long as you have someone besides to offer you comfortable life without work.

Luckily enough, I got to see that milk and honey don't grow on trees. The men actually steal to get money and after that they can indulge life of beautiful restaurants, pubs, bars.. The way Jenny exposes her feelings about this to her father is simply remarkable. The director really caught some good scenes with this and some inspiring humour.

The movie also offers good music, nice yuppy-like places to visit, inspiring romance scenes and ideas.. and of course.. not to neglect.. how appropriate is an intimate relationship between a 16year-old girl and much older guy? (I never figured how old was he in the movie, but at least around 35 (with a wife and a kid that looked at least 7 years old) - The movie I think never touches this dilemma - or at least puts it aside, with some small scenes the parents have at the beginning. However, for me it was the thing I expected to be adressed at the movie at some point, unfortunately, I was dissappointed.




My personal rating: 6,0 (interesting in some aspects and very powerful in some scenes, however it might imply somehow corrupted message (give up education and you give up life.. and if you bring all back, you should consider yourself lucky if the system accepts you). But see it. It's different :)


IMDB for Education
Education official site