'An Education'Review: 4.5/5
'An Education,' based on a memoir by Lynn Barber, may appear to be a simple tale of adolescent egotism and ill-placed complacency. Is it? Yes. But with virtuoso direction courtesy of Lone Scherfig, expert cinematography by John de Borman, and an Oscar worthy performance from Carey Mulligan as the film's naive protagonist, 'Education' becomes a quietly iconic, modestly leveled tour-de-force.
Taking place in Southwest London in the 60s, the film follows teenage Jenny Miller (Carey Mulligan) as she obediently attends private school, and studies Latin as per her father's incessant demands. Why so diligent? Her family, mainly her father (played in another Oscar-worthy performance by Alfred Molina) wants her to attend Oxford, and doggedly pushes her, sometimes against her will. This is all well and good until David Goldman (Peter Sarsgaard) a charismatic, dapper thirty-something charms the young girl taking her to exclusive night clubs, chic restaurants, and Paris (yes, Paris).
If the formula sounds a bit routine, then maybe it is. If not for the overall formal and technical execution, it could have very well been a mediocre film at best. Instead, cinematographer de Borman exercises a formal depth and erudition, casting the obscure London town in a dual hybrid of stark pastel exteriors and deep gold and blue interiors, which coalesce to mirror a kind of binary state of mind, riddled with the delightful contradictions that are the bases for teenage angst: it's a winning formula on both scales. As is the nearly flawless direction by Scherfig, who directs with a thorough knowledge of her characters and the monotonous world they inhabit (Goldman's attitude towards redemption is brilliantly conveyed as an inhabitant of such tedium). In fact, the same tedium Jenny is struggling to escape. Not to worry. She'll learn her lesson.
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