An Education (2009)

An Education is one of those films that plays against itself, hyper aware of what it is and so constantly works to make you believe its charlatan and be charmed by him. This works largely because of Carey Mulligan, who is incredibly charming as the naive British girl caught up in the sophistication she craves. Jenny (Mulligan) and David (Peter Sarsgaard) are an unlikely couple, separated by 18 or 19 years, which is two years longer than she’s been in the picture.

And yet, the coming of age aspects of this film are handled exactly such as they are: a little droll, pretty typical which provides a lot of space to maneuver the moral murkiness of Jenny’s predicament. The film makes no bones about the symbiotic relationship that exists, though Jenny’s side of the relationship is what’s privileged – she a budding francophile with all the trimmings: she yearns for jazz, good food at restaurants (her father crumbles with anxiety about appetizers), art expositions & concerts–a free spirit devoid of prejudice. And yet the price she pays is to rigidly point her moral compass to the corrupt and go along for the ride. When Jenny is gossiping with friends at school, and she realizes that she will lose her virginity to David, she is taken aback but not surprised. And when David confronts her about the map, or his clients, his argument (to a 16 year old) is: well what did you

What makes this film work so well is that she is not an oppressed character, and its clear the memoir scribe (Lynn Barber) values this relationship as a key to her childhood (it “cured” her, she says), and so that colors the tenor of the narrative. Yes, David is creepy, beyond creepy, but he’s also charming and carefree (look at how carefully the moment when David reveals he, himself, has gone to Oxford is played, and Jenny’s reaction to this revelation – is she in on it, like she was in on Clive? Or is she as surprised as her parents?). But his creepiness never overtakes the film until he is fully revealed (and even then, the film may go too far to the left of Hollywood Blvd in castigating him), with the exception of one scene at Oxford after receiving the news that Jenny thinks it prudent to wait until she turns 17 (a very good idea, he concurs). And an early look in the film between David’s friends, which signals an understanding with the audience – yes, this relationship is weird to them – is later cast in a different, more confounding light.

The other side of her education is a little less engaging – Miss Stubbs, her teacher, is an honorable and likable woman whose life may not have turned out the way she wanted, but at least she has a firm understanding of her experience, which having mastered Heathcliff’s Otherness, she sorely lacks.

The ending of the film is unfortunate, but I guess pasted together in the way we come to expect these kinds of things – and the montage is a little surprising, but for all the churning music, couldn’t they have played some Chubby Checker?