This is a quintessential BBC film. It’s rainy yet perpetually glossy. There’s loads of fancy clothes yet everyone’s a bit frumpy.
Everyone, that is, except for our subject, Jenny Miller — played with a remarkable, sheepish exuberance by the lovely Carey Mulligan. There were numerous moments when she was on-screen that I couldn’t help but be reminded of a young Audrey Hepburn’s iconic Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffany’s. She’s destined to be a huge actress. Her character, Jenny Miller, begins as a dependent, young girl under the thumb of an over-involved father, gliding seamlessly through the replacement father figure of David Goldman — provided by Peter Sarsgaard — , before becoming a fully realized independent woman made all the stronger by the events we follow her through.
While Mulligan is undoubtedly the breakout star, Peter Sarsgaard’s David Goldman is the definition of charm. Sarsgaard plays the proverbial man every man wants to be and every woman wants to be with to a tee. That is, until we’re forced to feel differently. Jenny falls for David. Jenny’s parents fall for David. It’s impossible for the audience to resist falling for David. It’s just a very well played part.
Speaking of Jenny’s parents, Alfred Molina perfectly embodies the father who thinks he knows just what’s best but is still so eager to live even if vicariously through his daughter, whom he doesn’t realize his smothering has forced into naive decisions.
An Education is hopelessly appealing. From the entrancing Carey Mulligan to the oddly forgivable — even still — Peter Sarsgaard, this film dares you to dislike it and you can only give a polite nod and follow along. For instance, there’s one scene; Rarely is one particular scene so precisely machined as to wholly encompass a film’s entirety. The birthday party in An Education manages not only to do this, but it handily evokes the exact thoughts and emotions we should have been feeling on just what it is we’re seeing happen to this young girl’s world.
There’s not one thing I didn’t like about An Education. It’s happy, it’s sad. It’s lovely, it’s seedy. It knows nothing all the while providing the viewer with, yes, an education.
Filed under: Movie reviews Tagged: | Alfred Molina, An Education, BBC, Carey Mulligan, movies, Peter Sarsgaard
You can go ahead and hurry up and post something, too. It’s not like Facebook takes all of your time. I’d actually like to see you do some political commentary.