- ISBN13: 0043396331730
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Product Description
Young student starts affair with dashing older man.Amazon.com
A young girl seduced by an older man may be a common story, but An Education is no common movie. As Jenny, a precocious middle-class British schoolgirl charmed by a small-time criminal, newcomer Carey Mulligan is luminous; her face can be plain and beautiful at the same time, her eyes expressing a restless intelligence and a hungry soul. As David, the seducer, Peter Sarsgaard (Year of the Dog, G… More >>
**Warning–This review may contain spoilers**–’An Education’ is a film rife with one implausible character after another. For starters, when we’re introduced to the protagonist, high school student Jenny, she seems way too sophisticated for a 16 year old. The main problem is that Carey Mulligan, who plays Jenny, is 24 years old in real life. Why didn’t they cast a teenager?
Then there’s the problem of the girl’s father, Jack. At first he appears extremely petulant, a caricature of the pushy parent who wants their child to succeed at any cost. With his insistence that Jenny study night and day in order to get into Oxford, we’re first led to believe that he’s the film’s antagonist. But soon when con-artist David appears on the scene, Jack is suddenly reduced to unprincipled buffoon. I say buffoon because he’s so easily taken in by David’s scheme–that David is actually an Oxford alumni and knows famous Oxford professor/author C.S Lewis. If this was a real character, wouldn’t have Jack made a few simple inquiries to determine whether David was telling the truth or not?
In very simplistic fashion, the implication here is Jenny’s sudden embrace of a life of crime is due to Jack’s lack of principles. David basically buys Jack’s acquiescence in allowing Jenny’s trips away from home and ultimately accepting the idea of Jenny and David tying the knot. Somehow all this so easily rubs off on impressionable Jenny. The gutless father figure is nothing new–just think of Jim Backus strutting around in an apron in ‘Rebel without a cause’.
Perhaps the moment I found to be the most incredulous was Jenny’s sudden transformation from earnest student to unsavory bad girl. Even with the father acting the way he did, would she have so suddenly embraced David once she discovers that he’s a con artist? I would think that a normal teenager would have been very alarmed that she was now in the company of a bunch of criminals and fear would have entered into the equation. But what was Jenny’s reaction? A mild protest and then David sweeps her off her feet.
David was disappointing in that he was such a tame sociopath. What are his crimes? Well, he steals an antique map from a house that’s up for sale and arranges for minorities to move into apartment buildings, scaring elderly tenants, and then buying the apartments from them when they decide to leave, at cut-rate prices. Oh yes, he also cheats on his wife. Equally disappointing is the couple he hangs out with–except for one scene where there is a confrontation with Jenny, they really have little to do.
Every melodrama needs a villain and that is of course the headmistress of the school Jenny attends. After she finds out David is Jewish, she blurts out that the Jews “killed our Lord”. Not only is she depicted as a vile anti-Semite but she cruelly rejects Jenny’s request to be reinstated. Only Jenny’s kindly teacher is willing to give her encouragement.
There is nothing subtle about ‘An Education’. It’s an old-fashioned morality play where the good guys (educated professionals) triumph over shiftless petty criminals who hang out at such unsavory venues as dog tracks and seedy nightclubs. Everything is tied up in a nice ribbon at the end when both Jenny and her father repent and Jenny is miraculously accepted into Oxford.
‘An Education’ is a tawdry little tale that has already garnered a good share of undeserved accolades. It does boast a nice recreation of early 60s London along with a brooding score but in terms of psychological insight and depth of character, it totally lacks any kind of aesthetic credibility.
Rating: 2 / 5
I was not sure how I would like the film and I felt from the start indifferent to the outcome of the main character, a 16-year old girl with a bit too much self-regard, self-belief in her own intellect, and a lot too little experience. Though her face was engaging enough, and her British accent rather fine, I disliked her for the typical quality of insolence she displays and which one not infrequently sees in “intelligent” teenage girls. Since I believe the point of the whole film was to engage sympathy from the audience for this young girl, the film fails. She is (in rather generic and prototypical fashion)so quickly taken in by an older and not particularly handsome or astute cad. I hate to say I felt no sympathy for her when she got her real “education.”
That rather defeated the entire purpose of the movie, though it has received a lot of accolades from various critics. I was unengaged by her dilemma and her arrogance and her easy deception. Perhaps if she had been more beautiful or if she had more depth, I might have engaged in her problems. But, I never did. And, Peter Saarsgard’s performance as her seducer, though good in its way, was as usual downright creepy. I don’t like him and never have, so I’m not surprised that I found her entrancement with him unbelievable. He’s just weird to me.
I did give the film its due and watched it through to completion (mostly out of banal curiosity). I was disappointed because it lacked depth and insight, though it struggled hard to provide it. Emma Thompson in the few milliseconds of screentime she had was marvelous. She plays the headmistress of the young girl’s school and she looks at her after the girl says, “I thought this would all make me become a woman” and replies with utter and devastating clarity: “You’re not a woman.” The shrug of her shoulders as she says the line and the slight chuckle of cruelty beneath the voice were beautiful. It’s a pity she wasn’t the star of the film when she was younger. Now, THAT would have been a film worth seeing.
That’s my two-cents worth.
Rating: 2 / 5
A lushly photographed film that is both draggy and interesting. Very handsome and photogenic stars. Outside of the Middle East, it’s unusual to see a Jew openly portrayed as a scoundrel, and this is probably one of the unique aspects here. Also gives a nice feel for British private school life, family interactions, and social mores in the 1960’s.
Rating: 3 / 5
This was a difficult movie to rate. I thought the performances – especially Carey Mulligan’s – and its 60s authenticity were outstanding. But the subject matter, despite being (purportedly) true, was not at my comfort level. It was unsavory, as another reviewer said. I kind of felt like I needed to take a shower afterwards, despite the fact that there was nothing sexually explicit in the movie.
I found it unrealistic that Jenny’s parents allowed her relationship to go on, even though Lynn Barber explained how this happened and how her parents were enamored with the sleazy David. (David, played charismatically by Peter Sarsgaard, is not nearly sleazy enough and certainly does not fit the description given by Barber).
I suppose this could be labelled a “coming of age” movie, but it is one that I found rather bleak. As someone who is the same age as Barber, I cannot imagine anyone whom I knew in 1960 falling for this kind of seduction by a man twice her age. Nor did I ever know any parents who would have permitted such a thing this to go on. I almost hate to mention this, but I wonder how carefully Barber’s memoir was vetted for authenticity? I am well-known by my friends for having a healthy skepticism about memoirs, and this one is no different. I just cannot help but wonder about the blurring of the line between memory and imagination…..
Rating: 3 / 5
“An education” is very well acted. Art direction and recreation of the 60’s are impecable and there are many enjoyable witty dialogue lines. The movie is never boring and keeps you expectant all the time for that turn in the story that will surprise you and make it memorable… but it never comes.
It is true that such a “twist” is not essential. Being able to captivate an audience by re-telling a very well known old story also has an enormous merit. But “An Education” does not achieve this either. The misfortunes of an innocent young girl deceived by a charming older man have been brought to the screen many times, and so have coming of age stories, both categories into which “An Education” could be classified. However, this version is certainly not one that will be remembered among the best.
It could be forgiven that the “innocent girl” appears too far from gullible. It could be argued that she is rather more dazzled than deceived. However, there is an extremely naive treatment of some characters that are essential to the story, especially the initially strict father who falls too easily a prey to the charm and lies of the mature man that chases his teenage daughter. Even if it could be accepted that, in reality, he is letting her go willingly, expecting that in this way (just as she does) she will get more from life and more easily than by pursuing her studies at Oxford, the movie never portrays his inner struggle or thought process. The same comments apply to other characters, like Emma Thompson’s headmistress, who is described in an extremely simplistic way as a decidedly moralistic anti-semitic bitch, uncapable of giving a lovable brilliant girl who made a mistake a second chance. So the story becomes not only predictable but very linear, with many of the characters becoming just decorative accesories (very pleasant to look at, that it is true) to help move forward the narrative of the story, but devoid of any depth.
The moralistic end with the main character’s redemption, though not necessarily a negative had the whole story been more solid, adds another element of predictability that does not help to enhance one’s final impression of the film.
In short, this is a movie where all the formal aspects have been very well taken care of. If it had had a script with a bit more creativity or better defined characters, it could have been believable and, who knows, even memorable. Unfortunately, it is just as a gift box wrapped in bright paper and colourful ribbons, which you untie and open only to find a pair of socks which you have already worn before and not even your best.
Rating: 2 / 5