An Education (Carey Mulligan, Peter Sarsgaard, Alfred Molina) – Every once in awhile, a gem of a movie like An Education slips into America unnoticed. If not for the Oscar nominations for Best Picture and Best Actress, such would have been the fate of Danish director Lone Scherfig’s film about Jenny (Carey Mulligan of Brothers and Public Enemies), a gifted high school girl who studies in hopes of getting into Oxford while playing the cello and dreaming of a more exciting future than the one for which she is destined. Her parents, played by the gifted and versatile Alfred Molina and Cara Seymour, are droll. Molina’s Jack has laid out the path for his daughter’s matriculation to Oxford. But she is more adventuresome than she seems.
Rescued from the rain by David, a seemingly nice passerby in a nifty sports car, she moves from a touch suspicious to captivated to seduced. So do her parents. Played by “king-of-the-indie flicks” Peter Sarsgaard (Shattered Glass, Elegy, Jarhead, Rendition, Flightplan), David seems to have good intentions but something seems wrong. His friend, Danny (Dominic Cooper of Mamma Mia), and his girlfriend are carefree, sophisticated and oh so casual. But it turns out David and Danny do not-so-proper business together. As the two couples spend time in cities from Oxford to Paris, we see Jenny getting the education of a lifetime without the bookwork.
Carey Mulligan has been nominated for every female acting award on the planet, including Oscar, for her coming-of-age performance. She moves seamlessly from an innocent to a sophisticate while reminding me of a cross between Heather Burns in Miss Congeniality to Audrey Hepburn (she looks just like the star of Breakfast at Tiffany’s and My Fair Lady with her hair up). Many people were surprised by the Academy Award nomination for Best Picture but not me. It is easily in the company of A Serious Man. Similar movies that come to mind are The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, History Boys and About A Boy. I enjoyed this relatively short movie for its characters, its dialogue, its wit and its plot. I think you will, too.