AN EDUCATION (Sony, 2009) D: Lone Scherfig, w/ Carey Mulligan, Peter Sarsgaard. Rating: NNNNN DVD package: NN Rating: NNNNN
In early 60s London, before the Swinging 60s kick in, Jenny (Carey Mulligan), a 16-year-old whose life is consumed with getting high marks in hopes of acceptance at Oxford, meets 30ish David (Peter Sarsgaard), who wants to expand her horizons. Is it love or lust?
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No coming-of-age movie clichés apply here. Strong emotion and humour emerge naturally from well-conceived characters whose responses to the story’s turns are surprising and believable.
Mulligan and Sarsgaard, both charming and smart, are surrounded by top English actors including Alfred Molina, Emma Thompson and Rosamund Pike, all clearly delighted to be working with Nick Hornby’s smart script and director Lone Scherfig’s effective visual storytelling.
Mulligan and Sarsgaard join Scherfig for the sort of lacklustre commentary that suggests none of them has given a thought to what they intend to say.
EXTRAS Commentary, making-of doc. Widescreen. English, French subtitles