An Education

An Education, a movie based on the best selling memoir of Lynn Barber, is an exciting, yet quietly disturbing spectacle. As a story about sharply smart, witty and beautiful 16 year old girl, who get seduced by an older man, starring the wonderful Carey Mulligan and with all of the gorgeous classy costumes, it is a complex, but a fun movie to watch. I can only agree with Roger Eberet, who states that in spite of the subject, that can be uncomfortable for some: “The movie isn't shabby or painful, but romantic and wonderfully entertaining.”

The movie takes place in the early 60’s in pre-swinging London. The life of the 16 year old Jenny is pretty mundane. All it revolves around is school and some cello lessons, that are “not fun at all”, as Jenny says, but certainly necessary from the point of view of her strict father, who likes to say that: “It shows that you are a joiner-inner!”, all for the sake of one goal: so she could get into Oxford.
However, this reality gets a quick twist at that one rainy day. Jenny is carrying her cello from an orchestra rehearsal, while super-smooth David stops by in his pricey car and casually offers her a lift saying: “Hello. If you had any sense you wouldn’t take a lift from a strange man, but I’m a music lover and I’m worried about your cello”. Jenny is a bit hasitant at first, so she decides to walk next to the car, but after she’s already soaking wet and cold from the rain, she decides to join the company of David, the charismatic stranger and her cello that is already sitting at the expensive upholstery of the car's interior, safe from all the free radicals.
And this is where the main story’s line begins. As stated at the rottentomatoes.com website: “Urbane and witty, David introduces Jenny to a glittering new world of classical concerts and late-night suppers.” And really, from this point it does not take many of fancy concerts, art auctions and luxurious trips he takes her to, Paris included, for the innocent Jenny to quickly fall in love with him and her new reality, telling him: “You’ve no idea how boring everything was before I met you”, unaware of the fact that it is all just one big fat lie. What is more, soon the sociopathic charmer’s seduction slowly extends to Jenny’s good-natured parents as well, sneakily getting under their skin with the words like: “You didn’t tell me you had a sister, Jenny” or “You’re a Lucky man, Jack”, and even though there are obvious red flags, they all settle down in the comfortable denial of what is actually happening.
Soon after leaving the school, with her head in clouds and the intentions to marry David, that in her opinion would be a great alternative to studying at Oxford, Jenny finally sees through it all after she finds out David have been married for the whole time of their relationship. What is more, she discoveres she certainly wasn’t the first one David has decieved, as she meets his wife who doesn’t seem to be surprised at all.
The movie takes a radical turn from there as we are witnessing Jenny to take her life back into her own hands. Firstly, she tries to get back into school. When she is rejected by the head manager, she decides to come beg for private lessons to one of her favourite teacher from before the whole David thing happened. Luckily, this teacher, Miss Stubbs, decides to put aside her ego, that for sure has been hurt by Jenny’s previous actions, and takes Jenny under her wings. With Miss Stubbs's support and with a year delay, Jenny is finally able to get into Oxford. The movie ends with Jenny’s monolog, suming up all she has learned from the whole experince.
Although the ending might be a little bit shallow and stereotypical, as PeterG wrote in the comments thread at metacritics.com: “If the movie had been about 1 minute shorter, stopping immediately after the scene where she asked her former English teacher for help, I would have rated it more highly. The last minute wraps things up too quickly, neatly and simply, making sure we know everything turns out all right.” The rest of the movie is gripping and fun. Carey Mulligan really did a great job interpreting the role with a generous mixture of innocence, naivety, sharpness and sarcasm. There are other great stars in the cast, too (such as Rosamund Pike in the role of Helen or Peter Sarsgaard as David), that have helped Carey Mulligan to shine, as James Greenberg wrote at www.hollywoodreporter.com: “But without Sarsgaard's restrained and morally ambiguous performance, Mulligan would not be able to shine as brightly. Dominic Cooper is suitably smarmy as Danny, David's best friend and partner in crime, and Rosamund Pike as his party girl girlfriend is a perfect new role model for Jenny. What makes "An Education" a special piece of work are the social forces going on beneath the surface that inform these all-too-human characters.”
That being said, the movie is also worth seeing for the costumes. Who does not like the sleek yet playful 60’s fashion, right? Still, as Sukhdev Sandhu states in his review regarding the whole impression of the movie, as well as the costumes: “The movie recreates the time and the place in post-war British history with rare precision, but never for one moment allowing costumes or period details to become more important than ideas.”
And lastly, what I find uplifting about An Education is Jenny’s attitude, too. Even though she’s being betrayed, I don’t feel like she sees her as a victim. She’s strong enough to reconsider her previous actions, take accountability, and rebuild her life.

Works Cited:
Ebert, R. (2009, October 21). An Education Movie Review & Film Summary (2009) | Roger Ebert. Retrieved from https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/an-education-2009
An Education. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/an_education
PeterG (2009, December 22). An Education. (2009, October 09). Message posted to https://www.metacritic.com/movie/an-education
GreenBerg, J. Hollywood Reporter | Entertainment News. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.hollywoodreporter.com
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Written as a schoolwork.