It’s always fun to see a new star arrive full-force in a screen performance that basically announces, “OK, here I am, get used to seeing me in starring roles for the conceivable future.”
That’s the impression made in “An Education” by 24-year-old British actress Carey Mulligan, who navigates this film with complete confidence. And the movie around her happens to be awfully good, too.
It’s based on a memoir by Lynn Barber, set in early-1960s London. Someone had the inspired idea to enlist Nick Hornby, the author of “High Fidelity,” to adapt this idea and the blend of a female perspective (it’s also directed by a woman, Lone Scherfig) with Hornby’s boy-centric sensibility is just exactly right.
Carey Mulligan plays Jenny, who is 16 years old in 1961. She lives with resolutely middle-class parents in a resolutely middle-class suburb, but she spends a little too much time listening to jazzy French records to be satisfied with her life.
Jenny’s one of the brightest students at her school, but the “Education” suggested by the title truly begins when she meets David (Peter Sarsgaard), a man in his mid-30s.
Audiences are free to make their own judgments about the yuckiness of the age difference, but the film respects Jenny too much to judge her. Some of the school authorities are concerned: a strict headmistress (Emma Thompson) and a doting teacher (Olivia Williams) in particular.
Her parents are another matter. One of the film’s wittiest elements is the way Jenny’s parents are seduced by David, who comes across as exactly the kind of sophisticated, worldly wise fellow they would be in awe of.
The parents are played by Alfred Molina and Cara Seymour, and if Molina doesn’t get an Oscar nomination for his splendid turn, I’ll be very surprised.
As for Jenny’s own relationship to David — well, we’ll let those twists and turns be discovered as they roll out.
He larks about with two bohemian friends (Dominic Cooper and Rosamund Pike, both excellent), and their lives look impossibly romantic to Jenny. At least for a while.
Lone Scherfig is a Danish filmmaker whose delightful previous outings, “Italian for Beginners” and “Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself,” marked her as a gifted talent.
She has the ability to capture tiny little moments of truth, and the wisdom to look at all her characters in a well-rounded way.
Carey Mulligan carries many of those moments of truth. Mostly seen on British TV until now, the actress arrives as though she’s been preparing to command a movie for years. And she can.
“An Education” ½
In the London suburbs in 1961, a bright 16-year-old (Carey Mulligan) falls for a charming older man (Peter Sarsgaard). Director Lone Scherfig knows how to get all the tiny moments of truth right, and in Ms. Mulligan she has a new star arriving fully formed and in command. Alfred Molina co-stars.
Rated: PG-13 for language, subject matter
Showing: Egyptian
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