Why do we go to school? Is it to learn everything we can? Is it so that we can be a more effective member of society? Is it so that we can simply have a better life for ourself? This question and others are asked and answered in Lone Sherfig's “An Education.” Based on Lynn Barber's memoir's “An Education” follows Jenny (Carey Mulligan), a teenage girl in her last year before college who wants to know what it's all about. When she doesn't get any real answers from her teachers, she seeks it outside of school in the form of David (Peter Sarsgaard), a thirty something charmer.
Jenny is a very smart young girl in 1960s London. One of her biggest dreams is to visit Paris, maybe even live there for a while. She loves art, good music and “being cool” as most young people do. Jenny is on track to be accepted to Oxford, which would very much please her parents, especially her father(Alfred Molina). Then comes David, a mysterious man that innocuously enough offers to give, not Jenny, a ride home, but because it's raining he offers her a ride for her cello. This is the first we see of how very calculated and self aware David is. He knows exactly what he's doing.
Jenny thinks she knows what she's doing, and maybe she does. When David lies to her parents so that she can hang out with him and his friends over night, she goes along with it. She's knows it's wrong, but, afterall they're only going to see a violin performance. She desperately wants to act and indeed be older than she is. This is very dangers for a girl who believes herself to be much more experienced in life than she is. David IS older than she is, and he offers Jenny exactly that experience that she so naively wishes for. However, that experience soon becomes more than she's comfortable with. She's soon left to deal with the consequences of her decisions.
It's called “An Education,” it would seem, for two reasons. One, because Jenny quickly learns many lessons about what it's like to be an adult, and having to face real adult situations and make adult decisions. Society tries to guard the young against having to deal with that for a reason. Two, because the movie looks at the reasons why girls were educated in the 1960's. From the very beginning of the movie, Jenny's father pushes her to stay on top of her studies so that she can go to Oxford. He's the stereotypical stickler of a father. That is, until David proposes to Jenny. With the prospect of having found a future husband, according to her father, there really is no reason to have to go to Oxford anymore. If I wasn't sure that stuff like this actually happened (happens), I'd laugh it off as a ridiculous joke. Long story short, stay in school boys and girls.
This movie is very well acted. Carey Mulligan was nominated for an Academy Award for her portrayal of Jenny and I most certainly believed she earned it. However, like Jenny, I was at first taken in and rather mesmerized by this movie. Looking at it again, I see that it takes an overly simplistic look at the whole situation. In the movie, Jenny asks her teachers why her and her classmates are in school, why are they learning. It's a fair question. Why should they care about their learning if they are never told why they should? In the movie, the answer comes down on two sides, it's either to find a suitable mate, or to allow yourself to live without a mate. This might be an oversimplification, but I feel it's a failing of the movie, as is the quick tacked on happy ending.
The movie is very good despite its shortcomings. It was nominated for an Oscar for Best Picture when they opened up the field to 10 pictures, and I agree with its inclusion. It's not a perfect movie, but it definitely starts the conversation.
7.5/10
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