'An Education' review

Directed by Lone Scherfig

By Venuszine Administrator
Published: October 1st, 2009 | 4:41pm

Jenny, played by Carey Mulligan, is in her senior year at a British preparatory school. She reads great works of literature, takes Latin, and swoons heavily over French jazz — all in hopes of readying herself for Oxford. Under the watchful guidance of her strict father, Jenny’s world is disciplined until she meets David, a man who presents himself as the romanticized actualization of her studies. Played by Peter Sarsgaard, who has become synonymous with “creepy antagonist” of late, David throws Jenny off her focus.

David and his friends are equally fabulous and intriguing, each with seedier proclivities that help tear down Jenny’s clean-cut parameters of virtue, marriage, love, and sociability. It’s interesting to see this take place through the eyes of female director Lone Scherfig, who gives writer Nick Hornby’s often male voice a refreshing change in perspective and tonality. Together Scherfig and Hornby present An Education, and suggest that every seemingly great thing can fuck you (pun only partially intended) and sometimes the events that befall us are worth learning how to rebound. The realistic story resonates humor and discovery. Overall, An Education is, as its name suggests, a gauntlet toward fulfillment and personal betterment. — Eavvon O’Neal