With “An Education,” Peter finally finds a movie he likes

 

Editor’s note: Peter Lewis has agreed to use whatever it is you call his writing style to provide some measure of analysis to those folks who still go to a theater to see a movie. Enjoy.

review by Peter Lewis

There is a tendency in both television and movies to spell things out. The line of thinking, I presume, follows that the easier something is to digest, the more likely it will be ingested. And to complete the gastric metaphor, being force fed when one knows how to wield a knife and fork is quite the stomach-turning prospect. So it was with great pleasure that I found myself supping on honest to goodness nuance while watching the Oscar nominated film, “An Education.”

Based on a memoir by Lynn Barber, a British journalist, “An Education” was adapted for the screen by the acclaimed author Nick Hornby, and quite capably directed by Lone Scherfig.

The film is set in the early 1960s and revolves around Jenny, a 16-year-old girl with a sweetly loutish, but domineering father (wonderfully played by Alfred Molina). Clever and beautiful, she dreams of escaping her suffocating life in suburban London. It’s Oxford, then life in Paris for young Jenny.

Standing in the rain, patiently waiting for a bus, she makes the acquaintance of David, a much older man (played by Peter Sarsgaard). This innocent meeting sets the plot in motion as the naïve shell of adolescence slowly gives way. Life is no longer suffocating.  Instead of reading about life, love and parties, Jenny is living them on the arm of a rakish and disarmingly older man.

This is mentioned not because knowledge of the plot is overly important, but because it is important to know just how much of the film rests on the young, beautiful shoulders of Carey Mulligan, the actress playing Jenny. While the entire film is a spectacle to behold, the true focus is Carey herself. She imbues her role of precocious teenager with just the perfect amount of shy awkwardness and preternatural grace. Hopefully the future will disprove this as hyperbole, but Mulligan’s beguiling mix of  every girl beauty and allure is reminiscent of Audrey Hepburn.

While Mulligan is no doubt the star, Rosamund Pike is her adept foil as Helen, the true and hilarious manifestation of the adage, “ignorance is bliss.” Where David and his pal Danny (Dominic Cooper) show Jenny life, Helen teaches her how to embody it. Bored by classical music, confused by art, and utterly disdainful of books, she is a perfect counterweight to the overdeveloped sensibilities of Jenny’s fancy education.

The beauty of the film is the perfect balance. Hornby created a fabulous script that utilizes language and dialogue almost flawlessly. Words aren’t wasted, nor are they overused. Likewise, the Danish director Scherfig, a previously unknown entity (to me at least), is pitch perfect. She hones in on slight, but telling facial recognitions instead of relying on the melodramatic. Paris, in all its glory, is sublimely captured, but never at the expense of the personal romance between the unlikely lovers.

Quite simply, the film is a jewel. And it exists not unlike one. Expertly shaped,  it patiently sits in its case and bedazzles those who gaze upon it. There are no sweeping vistas or grand struggles, the film is personal and restrained. It is one of human emotions, of frailty, innocence, and chance, of possibility, regret and renewal. As the movie winds toward its close, the outcome is far from certain. More importantly, however, the desired outcome is even further from certainty.

As the world changes around her and reality bursts past her naivety, confusion reigns. But it is, paradoxically, that loss of innocence that first allows us to see the world. Jenny, like so many of us have, presumed her dalliances as an adult made her one. Though those affectations can be worn convincingly, it isn’t until the crushing weight of reality is felt that one begins to truly see.

Call it wisdom or call it insight, it is only earned through living. And if anything can be gleaned from this film, living ain’t always easy, but it sure can be damned good fun … at least for awhile.

• An Education is playing at the Carmike 14 in Fort Smith. Link here for time and ticket info.

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