Sunday, November 1, 2009

An Education

An Education is based on the memoir of the same name by Lynn Barber. She looks back at the early 60s when she 16 years old going to a London prep school with plans to attend Oxford. The thing that is great about the movie is the Jenny, Barber’s younger self, played by Carey Mulligan. Jenny is razor smart, skewering her buffoonish father with witty asides and speaking French to anyone who listen. When she is dazzled by the much older David, played by Peter Sarsgaard, who she later finds out is a con man, she begins to lose her way. Unfortunately she is not helped by her parents who are made to be simpletons who are duped into allowing her daughter to be taken away for weekends with David. David appears to be a big creep to the viewer but this smart girl gets taken in though she is never totally controlled by him and in some ways is smarter about a lot of things than he is. An Education is a slice of life movie about a time when girls had few choices for their lives. I think without the great acting by Mulligan the movie would not shine as well as it does, but with her it is well worth seeing.

Oh and learning about the real Lynn Barber is fascinating. Check out this article from the Telegraph.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Kristi and I also enjoyed the movie. You felt uncomfortable thru the first 2/3rds of the movie when you saw what was happening, but enjoyed the last 1/3

Mary's List said...

Did you see it at the Uptown?