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An Education tells the story of Jenny (Carey Mulligan), a pampered middle class kid living in London who dreams of going to Oxford University to read English. Her dull routine of school, cello lessons, awkward dinners with her parents and droll lunches with friends is turned upside down one day when she meets the charismatic and cultured David (Peter Sarsgaard) who whisks her off her feet by taking her on romantic breaks to Paris and to classical concerts with his exciting friends. As time passes, however, it becomes apparent that David and his joyous clique are not quite what they seem.

Despite a few solid actors An Education proved to be a terrible film. The usually dependable Alfred Molina gives a hammy performance as Jenny’s father and Emma Thompson could have been given more to work with as Jenny’s formidable headmistress. Carey Mulligan played her role well but there’s no getting away from the fact that Jenny is actually a downright dislikeable and irritating character. We’re supposed to feel sorry for Jenny and root for her while she treads the rocky roads of her ‘dual education’ (in life and the classroom), but just how much you can pity a privileged west London private school girl while she agonises about getting into Oxford and experiences her first broken heart I’m not sure. Even when Jenny reaches her lowest point she’s so annoyingly precocious in her handling of the situation that the emotional punch is just lost. On top of this the question of what actually happens to David is left unresolved.

It’s unclear what director Lone Scherfig was trying to achieve with An Education; if she wanted to make a damning social comment about pampered middle class lifestyles then she’s succeeded, but the fact that this is supposed to be some cutesy coming-of-age drama makes it so vomit-inducing that it’s barely watchable. Other films about the social elite, such as Bright Young Things and A Good Woman, work because they expose the vacuity of wealth and status and because the scripts have humour. If An Education had the balls to be a bit grittier it may have worked, as it is everything about the storyline and the characters is just too bourgeois for anyone to really care.

An Education is one of the only truly entertaining romantic movies I’ve ever had the pleasure of watching. Carey Mulligan and Peter Sarsgaard are a perfect on-screen match. They have great charisma and a believable relationship in the FIlm. The movie addresses some relevant issues today, like; is education the most important thing a person, a woman in particular can give him or herself? It also brings up the topic of age- and not just age, but a Man in his thirties seeing a young Girl still in High School. It’s interesting to see how the movie handles the subjects. I love the style of the Film. It’s not the most convincing 1950s setting I’ve ever seen but it still makes me wish I was right there, hearing the music, wearing the clothes, attending the parties. There were only a few holes in the Plot, and they weren’t important but for some reason they stuck with me. For instance, if Jenny was seeing David, a married Man, where did he find the time to slip away from his Wife and Child to see a sixteen/seventeen year old girl? Small things like that annoyed me… Another thing I really enjoyed, though, was Jenny’s interactions and her relationships with other Characters, particularly with her English Teacher. Details like those, and the perfect Hollywood ending, will leave any viewer with a warm feeling in their heart.

An Education est une chronique sentimentale légère et amère à la fois, un film sur le passage à l’âge adulte, dans une Angleterre conservatrice et désenchantée, où la femme était à l’aube de conquérir sa liberté. La réalisatrice, sans grands effets, esquisse un film par tâtonnements, alternant légerté et drame, comédie et mélancolie, rêve d’ascension sociale et désir de liberté. Un film au parfum nostalgique et pas seulement de l’Angleterre des années 60. Peter Sarsgaard en séducteur, Carey Mulligan en jeune héroïne multiforme et Alfred Molina en père britannique dépassé y composent de très belles prestations d’acteurs. L’histoire n’est pas nouvelle, mais elle distille une grâce surannée et attachante, malgré sa fin moralisatrice en diable.

An Education adalah sebuah film drama yang diadaptasi dari sebuah autobiografi dari seorang jurnalis Inggris, Lynn Barber. Naskah film ini sendiri diadaptasi oleh Nick Hornby, novelis asal Inggris yang mungkin sangat dikenal atas novelnya High Fidelity dan About A Boy, yang keduanya telah diadaptasi ke layar lebar, dan keduanya juga berhasil meraih banyak pujian, baik ketika berbentuk novel maupun setelah diadaptasi menjadi sebuah film.

An Education juga menjadi debut penyutradaraan film berbahasa Inggris pertama bagi Lone Scherfig, sutradara wanita asal Denmark, yang sebelumnya lebih banyak merilis film dalam bahasa negaranya sendiri.

Bersetting di tahun 1961, An Education berkisah mengenai Jenny Miller (Mulligan), seorang gadis muda cerdas berusia 16 tahun. Jenny adalah sebuah contoh gadis yang lebih banyak menghabiskan waktunya untuk belajar dan meraih mimpinya: masuk ke fakultas Sastra Inggris di Universitas Oxford. Semua berjalan lancar, hingga Jenny mengenal David Goldman (Sarsgaard), seorang pria tampan penuh pesona, yang memperkenalkan Jenny dengan sebuah ‘pendidikan di luar sekolah.’

Jenny, yang selama ini memang merasa bahwa kehidupannya lebih banyak dihabiskan untuk mewujudkan sebuah mimpi, yang ia rasakan sebenarnya adalah mimpi orangtuanya, akhirnya semakin larut dengan dunia yang dibawakan David dan kedua temannya, Danny (Cooper) dan Helen (Pike), untuknya. Dunia gemerlap penuh cinta dan kebebasan yang sama sekali belum pernah ia rasakan.

Sebenarnya, melihat jalan cerita yang ada, bisa saja Lone Scherfig dan Nick Hornby mengubah An Education menjadi sebuah drama gelap yang penuh duka dan tangisan. Namun, baik Hornby dan Scherfig terlalu pintar untuk melakukan hal tersebut. Mereka malah memilih untuk memasukkan unsur ringan dan kebahagiaan dalam sebuah jalan cerita yang sebenarnya dapat dikatakan sebagai sebuah tragedi. Sebuah cara yang mungkin akan mengingatkan Anda pada berbagai kisah cinta yang ditulis oleh Jane Austen.

Sekarang, untuk membuat semua ide brilian itu tercapai, diperlukan jajaran pemeran berkualitas yang mempu menghidupkan dan mengeluarkan semua sikap yang ada dari para karakter yang mereka perankan. Dan hasilnya, Scherfig mengisi jajaran perannya dengan jajaran aktor dan aktris watak Inggris (kecuali Sarsgaard – dia warga Amerika Serikat) papan atas. Dan lihat saja bagaimana peran David yang mempesona mampu dihidupkan oleh Peter Sarsgaard, peran Jack Miller, ayah Jenny, mampu dihidupkan secara konyol oleh aktor Alfred Molina, pasangan eksentrik Danny, dan Helen, yang dihidupkan Dominic Cooper dan Rosamund Pike, serta karakter dua orang guru Jenny, Miss Walters dan Miss Stubbs, oleh Emma Thompson dan Olivia Williams.

Namun, keberhasilan terbesar Scherfig adalah memilih aktris muda Carey Mulligan untuk memerankan Jenny yang manis namun pemberontak tersebut. Mulligan, yang mungkin Anda kenal lewat perannya sebagai salah satu saudari Keira Knightley dalam Pride & Prejudice (yang juga menampilkan Rosamund Pike), secara berhasil menghidupkan tokoh Jenny. Chemistry yang ia hasilkan dengan aktor Peter Sarsgaard juga sangat mengena. Sejujurnya penonton akan merasa sangat kesal melihat Jenny begitu bodohnya untuk masuk ke perangkap David. Namun di saat yang sama, penonton akan merasa bahwa hubungan Jenny dan David adalah sangat romantis, dan di saat yang sama akan jatuh cinta juga dengan pesona yang diberikan David.

Tentu saja, akan terasa sedikit kejanggalan di beberapa adegan akhir ketika Hornby sepertinya terlalu terburu-buru untuk memberikan jalan penyelesaian bagi masalah yang dihadapi Jenny dan keluarganya. Menurut saya, mungkin akan semakin baik jika Scherfig memanfaatkan dan lebih mendalami momen kerapuhan yang dialami Jenny, baru kemudian memberikan Jenny jalan penyelesaiannya.

Seperti layaknya sebuah film period Inggris lainnya, pujian terhadap An Education tentu tidak akan lengkap tanpa memuji berbagai keunggulan teknis yang juga dimiliki film ini, khususnya di departemen sinematografi film dan music score yang diberikan di dalam film ini. Sempurna!

Secara keseluruhan, walaupun belum dapat dikatakan sebagai sebuah karya yang sempurna, melalui teknik humor yang dibawakan oleh sutradara Lone Scherfig dan penulis naskah Nick Hornby, An Education berhasil menjadi sebuah film drama yang sangat berisi namun tetap mampu menghibur para penontonnya. Dan, menurut saya, bagian terpenting dari film ini adalah film ini mampu membawa pesan yang dibawa oleh judulnya, dan menjadi sebuah pembelajaran tersendiri bagi para penontonnya, khususnya bagi mereka gadis remaja yang sedang jatuh cinta dan merasa dapat memberikan seluruh dunianya pada sang kekasih hati. They definetely should watch An Education, and, hopefully, get educated as well.

Rating: 4.5 / 5

In Jenny’s world, knowing a famous writer is better than being one. Or so says her father anyway.

Like most young people, the hero of An Education, Jenny Mellor of Twickenham, London (annum: 1961) is bored and dreading the bourgeois, boring life of all the adults she sees. Sure, she’s high-functioning and excels as far as any sixteen-year old British girl in public school can excel. She plays cello, grades at the top of her class, and has an active inner life with her interest in books and music. Her dreams are classic rebellious ones – move to Paris, wear black, smoke lots of cigarettes and be an existentialist. Oh, and listen to French jazz. A lot of it. Jenny’s parents dream of a little less style and a lot more substance: read English at Oxford.

The thrust of the story drives by one rainy day as Jenny waits for a bus: David is older, single, Jewish and cosmopolitan as hell. Like any smooth-talking Lothario, he empathizes with Jenny’s plight all too readily, acknowledging he went to but didn’t graduate from “the School of Life.” He sweetly offers her cello a ride (“I’m a music lover. I’d hate to see an instrument get wet.”) and then herself; another chance meeting with David, this time in full view of her gaggle of friends, and she’s spellbound — he’s not just a person, but a whole way of life so unlike her parents’ early-to-bed penny-saved-penny-earned routine.

David appeals to Jenny’s parents’ sense of “the outside world” and the wisdom of those who can navigate through it; the couple are allowed to attend a Ravel recital, meeting some of David’s equally cultured and world-wise friends for a “spot of supper” afterward. The other public school girls envy Jenny, her parents are thrilled at the prospect that someone of means has taken an interest in their daughter, and Jenny is, well, not in love, but up in the clouds to be sure.

She and David (along with Helen and Danny, the couple who’re David’s friends) visit Oxford and then Paris and continue to wind their way through every auction, club, and hotel (with suites!) higher society offers. Drinking, art-appreciation and the hyperreal moments that accompany any foursome’s clan-like bonding occupy most of Jenny’s time and, of course, all of her thoughts turn to David and what he brings her. At one point, she learns of his career as “art liberator” (buying prints at low cost, after driving out their owners from a neighbourhood by “moving in negroes”) but her faith doesn’t waver.

Helen and Danny are a model for all the couples in Jenny and David’s situation: young, “chic” and after not quite love — perhaps nothing more than the contentment of being in this kind of relationship. The more we learn about David, the more this is probably the truth.

After watching his and Jenny’s outings and seeing the kinds of circles he orbits, I began to wonder more and more: just what exactly does David want out of any of this? Sure, he loves Jenny (“she might even be the one,” he says to Danny) and does enjoy the privileges his wealth and tastes allow him; it’s not the sex he’s after (they consummate, but only on Jenny’s seventeenth birthday — her, I guess, target date).

You don’t have to be a Harlequin paid-by-the-page writer to know that something else must be lurking. Is David really who he says he says, and what makes him, deep down, so unlike anyone Jenny has known — surely it’s not all about money?

As the plot plods on, we see Jenny enjoying her new life, and suffering her old: she’s either wide-eyed with amazement at all the things David can show her, or rolling those same eyes behind her teachers’ and parents’ and friends’ backs. Latin homework and boys just don’t cut it any longer.

Jenny becomes that rare and lucky girl who’s able to see both sides of life-as-she-sees-it: the sexiness of the affluent lifestyle David and his friends lead (where the women don’t even need to read books, Helen tells her) and the squareness of her parents’ cobblestone neighbourhood. One will lead to ruin, she’s told, the other to happiness and personal satisfaction. The problem is: it’s just not clear which one is which.

She spends much of the film understanding affluence as the absence of an education (say, at Oxford) and bourgeois living as a product of one.

What happens and what Jenny chooses (for she can’t serve two masters, it would seem) are genius, I think, on the part of the filmmakers. The convention of coming-of-age stories (where the hero, not quite at age, yet, comes of age) is that a lesson is learned and that lesson, acting as a gift from life experience itself, is what can transform fumbling pimply teens into strutting and confident adults. The story doesn’t chuck that whole business out the window, nor does it conform to it by the letter.

Instead, we end up watching the very clueless and too eagerly vulnerable Jenny make, probably, the very first real choice of her life. Thrust upon her as everything always has been, David’s appearance is as out of her control as, say, her orchestra practice times and whether she can or can’t wear jewelry to class.

The filmmakers frame the last act’s revelations as blows to Jenny’s esteem: she can see how un-powerful she’s always been, and finds a tiny but crucial distinction between being and doing: “character is action,” her friend tells her.

It’s been difficult for me to see this film as “requiring Jenny’s point-of-view” as I found, during the showing, that minor characters caught my interest much more fully: the boy Jenny brings home to meet her parents and embarrasses himself to her father by admitting he’s thinking of an “unpractical” gap year; the teacher, played by the divinely steely Olivia Williams, demonstrates the kind of personal strength Jenny doesn’t even realize she’s looking for and, ultimately, delivers the movie’s crucial line: “If you don’t got to Oxford, you’ll break my heart.” When that line is spoken, the whole scene made me angry with Jenny: how could she be so blind and stupid and immature, I fumed? And as the plot plodded on, I changed my mind: why is she so lucky a girl to have both terribly bad and sincerely kind and good people thinking of her?

Ignoring pretty throughly the fate of anyone not-Jenny at first irked me; then I thought of the above: instead of being a movie about “the choices one makes in life,” this film actually does that one better and shows us with parable-like directness “what the world might be given all we know about it” — as if we knew Jenny from the inside out and were feeling our way along with her. The pacing and the plotting all add to that: time is given for each new fact and change in relations to settle and establish itself, a lot like it would for Jenny, spending those dreary months caught between parsing Vergil and tuning to A-natural. Her naivety and ours, as viewers, coincide. We can hardly blame her for thinking so poorly of her parents and so highly of a handsome rogue. We fell for it, too.

This is a movie about assertion: its value once learned, and its power once employed.

It’s too easy to assume Jenny “learned her lesson” or was “scared straight” and then to walk away; I like to think better of her (and the expert performance of her, by Carey Mulligan) and understand that her progress as a young lady wasn’t a stain on her life, though it certainly was traumatic, and that it instead was a second chance, given to her before she could make a muddle of her first.

This one could’ve easily been any number of silly Hillary Duff coming of age dramas made from the Disney ’I’m finally a woman now’ assembly line but what works well is that it isn’t. Carey Mulligan and co. weave a wonderfully mature tale and Peter Sarsgaard finally works in a movie for me because he’s been weird and weasley all along in my eyes. It helps that a woman directed the film (with a notable dogme 95 background) which I bet it what infused the movie with a smart sensibility.This is the kinda film that leaves you with a smile all the way through, that you drop in towards the end, and then smile once more because this movie and its graces have the ability to do so.

Reminded me a bit of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. Granted that movie is not very fresh in my mind, and as I watched this, I thought they were set around the same time. However, that other film was made around the time this story is set (in the 60’s), but was itself set in the 1930’s. In that other English girls’ school drama Maggie Smith is the central figure, a liberal feminist teacher sharing romantic ideals of beauty and art with her impressionable students. In An Education you have the reverse. The central figure is Carey Mulligan as the student Jenny. She is drawn into a highly romanticized love affair with an older man. She is quite literate and yearns for the sort of exciting life the women in her novels experience. No older female influence is needed to push her, well Pike as Helen helps her feel more grown up as Jenny double dates with David and his friends Danny and Helen. Olivia Williams, who as the English teacher appears past her prime to Jenny, and Emma Thompson as the Headmistress try to advocate staying in school and getting a college education, so that the young women don’t have to rely on a man to take care of their every need. What seems like an exciting cultured life of seeing Paris and appreciating the finer things must be weighed against a boring several years of reading textbooks and writing papers. I wonder if Lynn Barber, the author of the memoir on which this movie is based, had read The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie or seen the movie version during her youth.

The film is a coming of age story from a girl’s point of view the film feels regal and cultured in it’s storytelling but the truth is you have seen it all before in these type of films. The storytelling is layered and immaculate.

The cast has a lot of big names that I was surprised to see play small supporting roles. I am guessing that it is the strength of the material that brung them onto the project. Carey Muligan is very good in this film but not best actress worthy her performance is strong especially n scenes where she shows a certain toughness when her character has been whispy before that. But she makes it believable that such a smart independent girl could fall for a boaster who promises her the world but falls short in many ways.

Then the third act comes and that dose of reality comes into her fantasy existence. Which shocked me because it was such a harsh and cruel downward spiral but that made the situations all the more believable, Especially when it came to what was expected versus what was achievable.

The plot is of a sixteen year old schoolgirl who falls for a older man who is different then all the other boys she is surrounded by he is confident, charming, cultured helices the same things she does and he finds her just as fascinating. As there romance proceeds we get to see the chinks in the armor as she does. Will they work out? You’ll have to wait and see but I think you will be able to predict most of the outcome.

To me one of the more heartbreaking scenes is her birthday party where a boy her own age a suitor who is nervous and awkward. But invited gives her the same gift as her father. Then her boyfriend comes in with arms full of presents and he realizes he stands no chance against this guy so he leaves and no one takes notice then we never see him again.

I liked the film I thought it was cute but it didn’t grab me and hole me but then again I don’t think the material was made to be that way. it’s not very gripping but it ins entertaining and makes you feel for the characters.

Girl’s coming-of-age story in 1960s Britain is a frustratingly safe and typical foray, a mild, sometimes enjoyable diversion that ultimately succumbs to a facile conventionality. At a brisk 95 minutes, the narrative is rushed through in a manner that fails to lend traction to any sort of dramatic intrigue along the way, opting to take the easy way out more often than inspiring innovation or challenging drama. What it ultimately lacks – despite the enormously winning performances of charming lead actress Carey Mulligan and her education-obsessed father played by Alfred Molina – is bite. The movie is sporadically sweet, funny, at times even thoughtful, but it lacks the originality and inventiveness required to turn such a formulaic tale into something truly special. What it says about education is valuable; it is ultimately our life experiences that teach us the greatest lessons. I just wish it got to that message in a more substantial way.

The first hour of this film was probably (in my opinion) features one of most romantic love affairs. On a rainy day, an under-appreciated young girl is waiting on a deserted bus stop under the rain. A smart, elegant old man stops by and the sparks fly between this two lost souls… Though, the plot of the film sounds cliche, through various small twists and a set of eccentric but likable characters, both the writer and the director manages to keep us extremely engaged throughout the whole movie…Even though, the ending feels a bit rushed and also feels a bit too preachy; still, it is a brilliant film that revolves around various universal themes that everyone can identify with. If the ending was less rushed and the screenwriter or director didn’t try too hard to give us a lesson, I would have given this movie 5 stars… Though, that’s perhaps the romantic in me talking, since that romantic part was disappointed with the films ending…