An Education reviewd by Alan Jones-Peter Sarsgaard, Carey Mulligan, Alfred Molina, Dominic Cooper, Rosamund Pike, Olivia Williams, Emma Thompson, Cara Seymour, Matthew Beard, Sally Hawkins, Amanda Fairbank-Hynes, Ellie Kendrick

The UK's Leading fantasy & horror film festival.

The Empire Cinema, Leicester Square, London 25th to 29th August 2011

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The premiere event of the year for horror fans - Time Out

Directed by Lone Scherfig. Starring Peter Sarsgaard, Carey Mulligan, Alfred Molina, Dominic Cooper, Rosamund Pike and Olivia Williams, 2009, 95 min.

“And the 2009 Oscar for Best Actress goes to…Carey Mulligan for AN EDUCATION”. It’s obviously not a genre film, and many of you may stop reading after knowing that fact. But for anyone interested in The Movies, there is no doubt in my mind that director Lone Scherfig’s absolutely wonderful celebration of intellectual curiosity on the part of a 16 year-old Twickenham schoolgirl in pre Swinging Sixties London has the award-winning right stuff.

A huge hit in Sundance at the beginning of the year, and then a Berlin favourite, by the time this Nick Hornby adaptation of journalist Lynn Barber’s memoir, published in the literary magazine Granta, opens in October, this smartly observant personal adventure will be considered the Oscar movie to beat. I’ve witnessed many break-through performances in my critical career. Julia Roberts was clearly destined for Hollywood greatness the moment PRETTY WOMAN was released. Julie Christie pulled off the same stunt in DARLING too. And the drab-to-Twiggy era in which that John Schlesinger landmark was set has now become the backdrop for virtual newcomer Carey Mulligan to shine as the ‘all-things French’ loving student Jenny desperate to escape her sheltered suburban upbringing. Ultimately it’s a simple choice she has to make; study hard to get accepted by Oxford, or embrace the ‘University of Life’ offered by David (Peter Sarsgaard, channelling Ewan McGregor), a con-man twice her age. The latter opens her eyes to a fashion conscious, sophisticated world she never dreamt existed, of classical musical outings to the West End, glamorous dinner parties in swanky Regent’s Park mansions and weekend trips to Paris dancing by the Seine. The unspoken price for this extra-curricular activity is Jenny’s virginity on her 17th birthday. But even when Jenny and her blinkered parents (Alfred Molina is fabulously funny as the product of his time father) eventually come to recognize their collective naivety in buying into David’s manipulative charm, the beauty of Scherfig’s emotionally rewarding odyssey is the non-judgmental stock put on the value of experience, no matter how dubiously gleaned. Despite being completely dishonourable and sleazy, the witty ‘man of the world’ David represents is crucial to Jenny in understanding her ambitions and desires. Scherfig’s prior movies, ITALIAN FOR BEGINNERS and WILBUR WANTS TO KILL HIMSELF, only hint at the lightness of touch and sureness of insight given the serious underlying concerns of this wonderful piece. Or the pitch perfect performances from such other cast member highlights as headmistress Emma Thompson, fussy schoolteacher Olivia Williams and bimbo socialite Rosamund Pike. But it’s Carey Mulligan’s incandescent performance that roundly captures everything from sexual awakening, coming-of-age, changing attitudes and unheard of female opportunity in the precise moment British post-war austerity finally shifted towards early Beatlemania.

AN EDUCATION sparkles and swings like a pendulum do with an all-encompassing and electrifying savoir-faire that will make it a firm Oscar contender.

Alan Jones

AN EDUCATION - 2009

*****