British import An Education‘s title is a double entendre
referencing two very different types of instruction that the film’s
16-year-old heroine finds herself choosing between: the education she
receives in her all-girls school as she grinds her way toward Oxford
and the one she receives on the arm of an older man, who whisks her to
art auctions, jazz clubs, and gay Paris.
Set in early-’60s suburban London, a place just beginning to swing,
An Education presents a few crucial months in the life of Jenny
(Carey Mulligan), a bright-eyed young brunette conquering her studies
under the watchful eye of her striving but only superficially strict
middle-class parents (Alfred Molina and Cara Seymour).
The film’s opening credits present a montage of of-the-era teen
girldom: field hockey, hula hoops, instruction in cooking and poise.
But Mulligan’s Jenny is Gidget as burgeoning sophisticate, punctuating
her bubbling classmate conclaves with Camus jokes and illicit
cigarettes and sweetly deflecting the awkward advances of a bike-riding
boy out of her league.
“I’m going to talk to people who know lots about lots,” she exclaims
to friends about her Oxford future. “I’m going to read what I want and
wear black. Listen to music. Look at paintings. See films.” Her father
complains that “French singing is not on the syllabus,” but Jenny’s
cultural desires extend beyond what looks good on a college admissions
essay and beyond her parents’ comprehension, which makes her a prime
target for David Goldman (Peter Sarsgaard), an alluring man more than
twice her age who forces a meet-cute by picking up a soaking Jenny and
her endangered cello while she waits for a bus after orchestra
practice.
And, as David takes Jenny from a classical concert to an after-hours
club boasting a different kind of symphony — that of smoke
and drink and Etta James covers and heady conversation — that
Jane Eyre paper for English class doesn’t seem quite so
important.
There are subtle signs of trouble along the way, but director Lone
Scherfig doesn’t let the viewer know any more than Jenny, so the unease
increases gradually. There’s a good Hitchcockian thriller lurking
beneath the surface (echoes of Suspicion and Shadow of a
Doubt) as the audience tries to figure out where David fits on the
misguided-to-dangerous scale, though the potential violence is more
psychological and emotional than physical.
Like most coming-of-age stories, this one is heavily dependent on
its lead performance, which is a doozy. Mulligan was 22 when An
Education was shot, but she plays 16 going on 17 flawlessly. The
whole movie could be experienced through Mulligan’s reaction shots, and
she and Scherfig handle the treacherous territory of sexual awakening
with a winning mix of bluntness and restraint. It’s a star-making
performance.
