Movie Review: An Education
Posted on: February 8, 2010
An Education (2009) is a film written by Nick Hornby, based on a memoir of Lynn Barber. This ninety-minute movie was nominated for the Critics Choice Movie Awards 2010 under the category of ‘Best Picture’ and had its cast nominated for ‘Best Actress’ and ‘Best Supporting Actor’. The movie stars Carey Mulligan as Jenny Miller, and Peter Sarsgaard as David Goldman.
The story is set in the 1960s of Suburban England where sixteen-year-old Jenny aspires to be an Oxford University student and she craves for another sort of life when she gets into university. When Jenny befriends thirty-five-year-old David, he opens up for her, a broader view of the cultured lifestyle she desires for, and brings her to concerts, auctions and high-class Cafés. Soon, Jenny loses interests in her school work and quits school after David proposes to her, thinking that David could give her a better life and that there is no point in studying anymore. The climax of the movie really begins when Jenny realises that David is not the man she thought he was and that David is actually a married man. Jenny finally understood that education comes from experiences and there are really no shortcuts in life.
I felt that the ‘feel’ of the whole movie was really great. The director- Lone Scherfig, took special effort into ensuring that every prop used during the movies were all appropriate for the 1960s era, such as the vintage cars and the costumes worn by the characters. The use of music of the film also added a nice artistic touch to the whole thing. Also, the pacing of the movie was rather slow but I guess that it was intentional so as to allow the audience to slowly blend into Jenny’s life and hence we would be able to relate to her during the movie. I would also like to commend on Carey Mulligan’s acting as Jenny Miller. I felt that Carey did a great job as she managed to show a smooth transition of Jenny maturing and becoming wiser as she went through her experiences with David Goldman. Mulligan really deserves her nomination as the ‘Best Actress’ in the Critics Choice Movie Awards 2010. From this movie, audiences can also expect some slight sense of humour between the dialogues of characters, a few heartbreaking scenes and many fantastic sceneries (of Paris and England in its 1960s) captured by Scherfig.
Overall, this film is really fresh and the storyline is really unique. I am sure that everyone will be able to relate to this movie especially teenagers. This movie definitely leaves audiences with some food for thought.(Does education only mean information learnt from textbooks, or can it also come from our daily experiences? Getting into a good university may matter, but are there any other important things in life that we have to experience? Are there any shortcuts in life? ) This movie is a definite must-see!
Rating: 8/10
-Miriam
artsyfutsy
Artsyfutsy's Blog 
February 14, 2010 at 3:53 pm
Hey good job on the review! I like the last part where you relate the portrayal of education in the movie to education in real life.
Is education merely from textbooks or can it be achieved through real life experiences?
This is indeed a worthwhile thought to ponder. Some people think that education comes solely from textbook but through real life experiences we can learn a lot of other important things which you can never learn through textbooks.
That’s why education shouldn’t be restricted to textbooks. You wouldn’t succeed nor survive in the outside world if so.