Nominated for three Academy Awards (including Best Picture), An Education (PG-13) tells the coming of age story of a teenage girl (Carey Mulligan) in early 1960’s England. The movie, based on a memoir by Lynn Barber, is directed by Lone Scherfig with a screenplay brought to life by British author, Nick Hornby. Peter Sarsgaard, Alfred Molina, Dominic Cooper and Rosamund Pike costar in the film.
Andy: Writer Nick Hornby has never put his name on a movie that wasn’t good (High Fidelity, About a Boy), and while this isn’t the best movie he’s been associated with, it is easy to understand why it’s the first to earn him an Oscar nomination. An Education is a consistently engaging period piece, filled with characters that are realistic, entertaining, and flawed. Most impressive is that he’s taken a story line that should be entirely creepy (a man in his 30s courting a 16-year-old girl) and made it seem both plausible and almost acceptable.
Ryan: An Education is a solid film. With strong performances by the cast, including a breakthrough one by Mulligan and an insightful screenplay by Hornby, An Education soars above most movies of this variety. Although set around the suburbs of 1960’s London, the movie feels fresh with its strong characters that feel modern along with its examination of the timeless theme of young love.
Andy: The bottom line is that this movie doesn’t work without an authentic and charming performance from Carey Mulligan in the lead role. Aside from playing a teenager completely convincingly (Mulligan is 24), she carries the movie along, setting the tone of almost every scene. Her performance is well worth her Oscar nomination. She plays the character as an ordinary person, with subtlety and nuance and emotional depth. Unfortunately, the Academy doesn’t often go for subtlety and nuance, so she has little chance of winning the Oscar in spite of giving the most complete performance I saw from 2009.
Ryan: In a year of very few breakout performances it’s refreshing to see relative newcomer Carey Mulligan deliver a magnificent performance. Unfortunately her odds of winning are not good (actually 27-4) due to the Sandra Bullock and Meryl Streep forces but in my book she should be the favorite. For whatever reason The Academy shies away from rewarding performances that they might deem “light.” But make no mistake, Mulligan excels in creating an authentic character that is beautiful, smart and impressionable that moviegoers can also relate to.
Andy: An Education is a very good movie, but it has a couple of noticeable flaws. As amazingly slick as Peter Sarsgaard’s performance is, Hornby sends him out of the picture with haste, and the entire ending feels a bit rushed. In many ways the hasty conclusion belittles the gravity of what has happened to Mulligan’s character, and makes it a little harder to take some of the repercussions of what transpires in the movie seriously. Perhaps director Lone Scherfig’s goal wasn’t to seem “important,” but it was an odd tone to strike at the end of an otherwise well executed movie.
Ryan: An Education didn’t garner any other acting nominations but it’s difficult to understand how Peter Sarsgaard was ignored. Sarsgaard is one of the best character actors of his generation and his performance in this film ranks as one of his best efforts. Sarsgaard's worldly portrayal is the perfect foil to the innocence of Mulligan's character and the success of the movie hinges on their interaction. Needless to say both of them rise to the occasion.
An Education is a very good movie with some worthy performances. Final grade: B+.
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