An Education

Starring: Peter Sarsgaard, Carey Mulligan, Olivia Williams, Alfred Molina, Rosamund Pike, Dominic Cooper, Cara Seymour, Emma Thompson
Directed by: Lone Scherfig
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Drama
2009

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: An intelligent British schoolgirl (Carey Mulligan) starts an odd relationship with a much older man (Peter Sarsgaard), who opens her eyes to amazing experiences she had never known. Her father (Alfred Molina) supports her friendship, but things become more complicated when she starts to reconsider her lifelong goal to attend Oxford.

Review:

Tim: An Education is the type of serious drama that often gets labeled an "important" movie. I suppose that is somewhat accurate. This is the type of movie that seems destined for an awards run. However, there also felt like something wasn't quite right with this movie, too. It felt good, but not good enough. I wasn't surprised to see this film went 0 for 3 at the Academy Awards- it feels like a film good enough to get nominated, but not nearly good enough to actually compete.

There are many things to like about this film. The story of a wise yet naive schoolgirl beginning a serious relationship with a much older man is always a controversial one, but made even more so when it takes place in a very restrained environment like in 1960s England. The story is actually very interesting and thought provoking. It is entertaining in a contemplative, intelligent way. The relationships in the film are not just entertaining to watch, but really make you think on a deeper level.

The film also boasts some impressive performances from a very, very talented cast. The best performance of the film is undoubtedly Carey Mulligan. For a young actress in her 20s to give the best performance with such a talented cast is impressive. Mulligan was perfect to play a 16 year old girl who is very intelligent, and in some ways wise beyond her years. And yet, at the same time, she needed to be seen as very naive. It is not easy to give a performance where you are simultaneously expected to appear wise and naive, as this is a fairly big contradiction. Mulligan pulls this off flawlessly. She really was pretty incredible in this film. I was glad that she received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress- she deserved it.

Peter Sarsgaard is also very, very good. Sarsgaard is such an underrated actor, and even here, giving such a good performance, he is still somewhat overlooked. I don't know if he deserved an Academy Award nomination, but it was close. He is quickly becoming one of those actors who needs to appear on the "How Has He Never Been Nominated for an Oscar?" list. He worked very well with the rest of the cast, but especially with Mulligan. I could see how they might be attracted to each other, and I believed a relationship between them was possible.

The supporting cast is surprisingly good. I loved Olivia Williams in a small, mostly thankless role. She was absolutely the right actress for the part, and I loved that she was hard to recognize in the part. I thought she gave a convincing, powerful performance that was easy to overlook. While she doesn't have much screen time, she made the most lasting impact on me. I was fascinated by her character. I also liked Rosamund Pike, to an extent. I love that she didn't fear looking silly by bringing some comedy to the film. I thought her ditzy, stupid blonde worked- for the most part. There were a few moments where I thought her performance felt forced and unrealistic, but these were minimal. I loved Alfred Molina as Mulligan's father. Molina is such a good actor (and an underrated one) and he had the opportunity here to really show off some of his talent. I enjoyed him in this film very much. Emma Thompson's presence was very welcome as well. She is only in the film for a few scenes, but they were important scenes to the movie. I enjoyed her here. The cast as a whole was very impressive, and helped the movie immensely.

While I definitely believe this is a good movie, I couldn't exactly love it. While watching it, I was interested, but not overly engaged. The movie wandered in and out of my attention, and it occasionally took effort to keep me focused. The story has some truly compelling moments where I lost myself in the story. However, there were a number of scenes that took me out of the film as well. While I was watching it, I enjoyed it, but I didn't always feel good about it. There were just weird moments throughout the film where I wondered if the film was hinting at something, but it never really elaborated on it. These moments threw me off balance, and I don't believe it was intentional.

An Education is a good movie, certainly. It deserved an Academy Award nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay, and Carey Mulligan certainly deserved her Academy Award nomination. However, I was shocked that this movie received a nomination for Best Picture. I know that the Academy's new field of 10 movies allowed this to be possible, but I believe there were other movies more deserving of this spot. I think the Academy wanted to make sure one of those "Oscar bait" movies got a spot, even if it had no chance of winning. I think this is a movie that is good, but was overrated by many people.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating- 7



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