FILM
An Education
On general release from 30th October
So rarely does a British film turn up with all its faculties at full voltage, feeling naturally cinematic and yet completely English, that Lone Scherfig’s An Education feels like that near contradiction in terms: a mainstream coup. This perceptive portrayal of a 1960s teenage girl swot’s seduction by a smooth-talking older man has all its creative upholstery beautifully fitted and finished, and it handles its coming-of-age theme with a genuine feel for its time and suburban locale. There’s a dazzling performance from Carey Mulligan as Jenny, managing the transition from awkward schoolgirl to woman-of-the-world with invisible skill; equally adept is Peter Sarsgaard as David the elusive charmer, and there’s a return to his best form from Alfred Molina as the well-meaning dupe of a Twickenham father, initially bent on getting his girl into Oxford but then banjaxed by David’s glamour. Watch out, too, for the insights of Rosamund Pike’s deadpan blonde party girl Helen. With a deftly fizzing script from Nick Hornby, based on Lynn Barber’s memoir of her youth, and the perceptive eye for British absurdities of Danish director Scherfig, previously responsible for the more lugubrious Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself, this is a treat of a movie and a demonstration of what straightforward British cinema could and should be like. It knocks just about every other set-in-the-1960s British film I can think of into a pork pie hat.
Nick James is editor of Sight & Sound
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