Review: An Education

Sometimes a film comes along that restores your faith in British cinema and An Education is that film. Set in a pre-Beatles Britain, Jenny's world is very dull and very boring until she meets David. The two worlds are represented by different scenery while Jenny's home and school are dressed in dull colours and shot bleakly, David's world is full of bright colours, fantastic lighting and great costumes. And this is where the brilliance of the film begins.

Nick Hornby's screenplay of Lynn Barber's memoirs is fantastic, Hornby is often unable to write believable female characters in his books but Jenny is a well-rounded teenage girl who has dreams and aspirations above her years but is still a child at heart. You have to wonder though how much of the script is from the memoirs, the scene with the banana especially seems too far-fetched to be true which means it probably is. Meanwhile Danish director Lone Scherfig proves why female directors should be as prominent as male directors. She is able to get the most out of every scene of the film and it is impressive seeing this only her second English language feature.

As Jenny Carey Mulligan, whose biggest role in cinema thus far was as Kitty Bennett in Joe Wright's Pride and Prejudice, shines bringing an efforvecent spirit to the character and mixes the giddiness of the main body of the film with the heartache of the last quarter. Mulligan has recieved Oscar Buzz for her role but in my opinion the actor most deserving of awards for this film is Alfred Molina. As Jenny's father he is presented as a comic stick in the mud for most of the film but his heart-to-heart with his daughter at the end demonstrates what a fine performance this is. Peter Sarsgaard veers just on the right side of creepy and is often presented as a boy who never grew up while in their brief scenes Emma Thompson and Olivia Williams are brilliant as Jenny's headmistress and Engish teacher respectively.

There are some little niggles which means this film isn't quite perfect. David's friends Danny and Helen, played by Dominic Cooper and Rosumand Pike, are quite one-dimensional seeming existing to show how vapid some of the people who David associates with are. Even though Pike tries her very hardest with the limited material she is given ultimately she is nothing more than window dressing. I would have also liked to have seen more interaction between Jenny and Olivia Williams' teacher character in the first third of the film before it is explored deeply nearer the end. But these are little niggles, as this is a brilliantly written, finally directed piece of British cinema which deserves all the plaudits it must recieve in the upcoming awards season.