This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Dec. 7, 2009 - Any education is a form of seduction, from falling in love with an academic subject to falling in love with the movies. This is the subject of my highlight of the St. Louis International Film Festival, "An Education," now showing at the Hi-Pointe. Though Danish director Lone Sherfig has made earlier films, this is the first to receive wide distribution.
Many films have been made about teenage boys coming of age but fewer about teenage girls. This film by a woman director, based on a memoir by Lynn Barber, is among the very best. Nick Hornby did a masterful job of adapting it for the screen.
The person who gets more than one education is Jenny, a 16-year-old only child who attends a rigorous private school for girls in a London suburb in 1961. Her striving middle-class parents (Alfred Molina and Cara Seymour) have put all their considerable hopes and energies into Jenny, who is trying to qualify for Oxford.
Whether playing the cello in the youth orchestra or doing her Latin homework, Jenny is expected to want nothing more. She does, however, long for a life of French movies, French cigarettes and a sophistication beyond her parents' experience. Carey Mulligan is perfectly cast as Jenny, the prettiest and brightest girl in the school, whose ambitions would surprise her parents.
Enter a 30-ish man, David (the marvelous Peter Sarsgaard), who offers Jenny - or at least her cello - a ride home in the pouring rain. Soon he is taking her to a Ravel concert, where she swoons in delight as David's ditzy friends doze. Before long he bewitches her (rather credulous) parents with other opportunities for Jenny, including a weekend in Paris. Jenny finds each new experience a revelation. Next her schoolmates are blabbing and her English teacher (Olivia Williams) and headmistress (Emma Thompson) become alarmed. What will become of Jenny and Oxford?
When I explained the movie's situation to a woman friend, she was repelled, thinking it was about a sexual predator. That much is true, but that is also an oversimplification of "An Education." The film is ultimately about the evolution of Jenny's sense of who she is and what she is about. David, who could charm the bark off trees, manages to seduce Jenny and her parents mentally long before he seduces her sexually. Of course he is a sociopath, but "An Education" works because Sarsgaard makes David so appealing.
From nightclubs to racetracks, the variety of new experiences dazzles Jenny, so bright and hungry for life. He does radically expand her world. It must be noted, however, that David might have done lasting harm to a less resilient girl.
"An Education" is weakest in the roles of Jenny's parents, who seem willfully naive about the older man who pursues their daughter. Their acting performances are slightly over the top, perhaps better to portray them as also under David's spell.
Anyone who ever was a teenager should have instant understanding of Jenny, whose inchoate longings are as poignant as the Edith Piaf records she adores. Jenny is still unformed, yet she has real integrity, which not only survives David but is reinforced by her experience with him. A cad? Yes. Useless in Jenny's development?
No. "An Education" is a film I would happily see again.
The Lens is provided by Cinema St. Louis.