An Education

Seeing as it was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture last year, I figured "An Education" would be a worthwhile film to watch. I was right. With a small cast of talented individuals, the film never loses steam. Carey Mulligan plays Jenny, the young, innocent girl who is bored with her routine life. She earns her Oscar nod, capable of expressing any type of emotion, be it teen angst, sadness, or wide-eyed optimism. Peter Sarsgaard delivers a spot-on performance as the older, refined man who takes Jenny away and shows her a new and exciting world. He makes it so we know he is up to no good, but sincere to some small degree. Danny, David's friend, is played by Dominic Cooper, a sort of young Michael Shannon. He plays the part well - a man who seems to have an avid interest in the arts, yet there is something very shady about the way he carries himself. Alfred Molina plays Jenny's strict yet gullible father, who doesn't seem to care that his young daughter has taking up with a man almost his own age.

When Jenny meets David, they strike up a relationship rather quickly. He takes her to fancy musical concerts and expensive restaurants and introduces her to his friends, who don't even seem bothered by the fact that she is sixteen. This, to me, sets off an alarm in my head and brings certain questions to mind. Has he done this before? Are there others?

Despite these questions, we watch them get close to one another and form a bond. This is where I find a problem with the film. It's the question of whether or not it tries to portray Jenny and David's relationship as romantic or honest. At the start of the film, we immediately know that what David is doing is wrong. He is a man of his late 30s creeping on a sixteen year old. One could argue that he is honest in his ways, that he just enjoys her company and wants to introduce her to all the beautiful things of the world - but come on. He could've given her a ride home and left it at that. And the next day he sends her flowers! I tried hard to see the good and purity in their relationship, but can't help get over the fact that he's more than twice her age. Are we supposed to overlook this discrepancy (as well as the fact that he's a liar, a thief, and experienced con artist) and see their little fling as a fleeting moment in Jenny's life, a time she'll look back upon and smile?

And how did those parents let David get away with this? Even if they thought he would be able to provide for her and take care of her - he took her to Paris. They had to have known what was going on. That they would let her lose a great education in order for a man to take care of her is very Anti-feminist. The father does, eventually, confess that what he did was wrong.

The film was a nice piece of reality - a sincere coming-of-age story about a teenage girl who has not quite figured out how the world works. People aren't who they say they are, but when this is discovered, everyone carries on with the rest of their lives as if nothing has happened. The film shows how we all take missteps in life, and while the memory of what happened is always at the back of our minds, we must learn to forget them and move on. The film is similar in this sense to another Oscar-nominated film, Up in the Air. I recommend both films, for their superb acting and honest, true story.