Running time: 100 minutes
Rating: M (mature themes)

In this dual review, News Hit writers Andrew Moraitis and Katherine Lazarus evaluate Australian director Lone Sherfig’s adaptation of Lynn Barber’s memoir, An Education. The film has been nominated for three Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Actress and Best Adapted Screenplay.

Moraitis

Late last year, the low-budget British film An Education generated serious awards buzz from overseas critics and media commentators, but its early heat somewhat fizzled in the lead-up to the Oscars, despite its nomination for Best Picture. Perhaps this is due to the fact that An Education is just a good, not great, film, which benefits from an absolutely winning performance from its young starlet that masks the fact that it is a little less than the sum of its wonderful parts.

In 1960s London, Jenny (Carey Mulligan) is a bright, intelligent 17 year-old, but is still emotionally and sexually immature. Into her life of order and study comes the dashing man-about-town, David (Peter Saarsgard), who offers her a life of fun and entertainment, pushing her further and further away from her dreams of studying at Oxford University.

Based on the memoir by journalist Lynn Barber, Nick Hornby’s screenplay is his first since his adaptation of his novel Fever Pitch and it is a pretty good one, effectively juxtaposing the traditional, conservative values of Wartime Britannia with the exciting new world offered by David and his flashy mates. I think the screenplay also found the right director in Scherig who gives cohesion to the many styles of the film- from the charcoal naturalism of Jenny’s home life to the neo-realism of the French sequence - with a good deal of skill and accomplishment.

But, despite the autobiographical source material, there is something artificial and arch about the storytelling, mostly due to the slight, thin story actually, brimming with the journalist’s still seething indignation at the behaviour of her parents and this cad.

Mulligan is quite a find as the young Jenny. You might have seen her as one of the Bennet sisters in Joe Wright’s Pride and Prejudice in 2005 and she is about to appear in the Wall Street sequel as Gordon Gecko’s daughter, and there is something bright and remarkably alive about her performance, beautifully essaying the character’s growth from a pretentious, but brilliant teenage girl into a mature, humble young woman.

The role of David requires a similar deft balance (this time between the alluring and the sinister), and Saarsgard’s performance does not quite come off as successfully as Mulligan’s. In the story, David has the power of putting the others characters on the back foot, walking into each room as if he owns it, but the performance seemed a little off, somehow.

It is not that Saarsgard is awful in the role (he effectively conveys the character’s simmering, weak interior), but he is not all that charming, at last nowhere near enough to credibly sway the bright Jenny and her conservative parents. In this respect Saarsgard unctuous, unconvincing performance does not come anywhere near the charisma and allure of ‘60s British stars like Peter O’Toole, Peter Finch, Michael Caine and especially Albert Finney.

The film, however, benefits from a strong supporting cast. Dominic Cooper and Rosamund Pike deliver strong support as David’s stylish, unscrupulous friend as well as the work of Alfred Molina as her father and Olivia Williams as her teacher. These scenes- filled with genuine emotion and compassion- are genuinely moving, and push the film from the merely good to the almost-special.

Lazarus

It must be difficult for a filmmaker to critique the glorious ‘60s when their story is set during the height of swinging London, with its charming fashions, jazz music and catchy dance moves. After all, before the bloom of the 60s’, everyone was still doing the shuffle.

In An Education, director Loan Scherfig perfectly juxtaposes the glow of a tantalising new era, breaking out of traditional London values, with the moral taint and subtle corruption of this brave new world.

At this time, even the most brilliant members of the female persuasion were left with limited choices regarding their future. In Sherfig’s film, Jenny (Carey Mulligan) is an uncommonly bright 17 year-old whose only real dream is to go to Oxford University and have the freedom to read whatever her heart desires until she is swept off her feet by a man mature enough to know exactly how to steal the virginity of a cloistered pearl.

The enigmatic David (Peter Sarsgaard) offers Jenny a glimpse of cosmopolitan society. Jenny gains trips to Paris, expensive gifts and shiny new friends that teach her the ways of the world. Although things look fabulous, things do not feel right in the bedroom. It is easy to forget the enormous age bracket of this handsome couple, but it becomes clear that their relationship is anything but appropriate.

Soon the alluring haze of new love fizzles, but not before Jenny has plundered the ambitions at Oxford.

The characters beautifully illuminate An Education. Long-time novelist but first-time screenwriter Nick Hornby (who also wrote High Fidelity and About a Boy) has fashioned a wonderfully rounded cast of characters. Jenny’s father (Alfred Molina) is the squanderer of anything frivolous. Rosamund Pike’s Helen is a typical dumb blonde whose subtle performance highlights layers beyond nonchalant naivety. All the actors are offered meticulous, wounded characters, and they embrace them with considerable thoughtfulness and charm.

I only found problem with the film’s ending. The quick wrap-up of the protagonist’s issues leaves a slightly rushed third act and the final narration is unnecessarily alienating.

For the most part, however, An Education is unquestionably refined. Scherfig’s film is not only a coming of age story about a girl discovering her sexuality, but also a layered exploration about country questioning its moral decay.