AN EDUCATION (2009) ¢ ¢ ¢
D: Lone Scherfig
Carey Mulligan, Peter Sarsgaard, Alfred Molina,
Dominic Cooper, Olivia Williams, Rosamund Pike,
Cara Seymour, Emma Thompson, Sally Hawkins
A teenager hoping to get into Oxford hooks up with a real-estate speculator and part-time thief who shows her the ways of the world. The acting's real good in this, and that's partly why it feels so creepy. You can understand why David (Peter Sarsgaard) and Jenny (Carey Mulligan) would be attracted to each other. He's cultured and charming. She's smart and impressionable. As much as you wish she'd just kick him in the balls and walk away, you can kind of see why she doesn't. Both Sarsgaard and Mulligan do a good job with that. The rest of the actors are stuck playing stereotypes, though Alfred Molina as Jenny's blustering father and Olivia Williams as a sympathetic teacher get one scene each late in the film to stretch a little. There's more than a hint of Audrey Hepburn in what Mulligan does here, especially in the scenes set in Paris. It's no guarantee of anything, but she has a look the camera loves and the talent to back it up, and that's a combination that could make a girl a star.
