An Education

Raise your hand if you're tired of a) artsy movies where the heroine discovers herself in Paris or b) movies where a young girl is being seduced by a much older man. Despite the worn-out topic, I managed to convince two other people to see An Education with me on Thanksgiving (It was also the only movie playing between lunchtime and dinnertime).

Set in London in the early 1960s, Jenny (Carey Mulligan) is walking home from cello practice one afternoon during a downpour when a kind and mysterious stranger (Peter Sarsgaard) in a dashing maroon car rescues first her cello, then her for completely altruistic reasons. A schoolgirl who has very strong opinions on music, art, and Paris, and speaks smatterings of French for no real reason, Mulligan still manages to present 16 year old Jenny as sweet and mildly clever, although her muddled awareness of the dangers lurking in the next level of her relationship with a 36 year old man is slightly suspect.

As Jenny's dashing hero David, Sarsgaard gives a rather muted and affable performance as a dodgy businessman who can talk circles around everyone, but treats Jenny with respect and a sort of quiet amusement. We never doubt that he does care about the girl, and Sarsgaard manages to express raw emotion on one or two occasions, but the feeling isn't there. Since An Education is rated PG-13 (who makes this kind of movie PG-13? Do they really think teenagers are going to go see an Indie British romantic movie-how many oxymorons were in that phrase?), we see about an hour of hugs and kisses on the top of foreheads heretofore reserved for babies and small children. There's little intimacy between the two actors, and as I stated in (500) Days of Summer, just throwing two attractive characters together with hand-holding and looks does not equate an actual relationship. Perhaps the filmmakers got caught up with trying to make the movie light and appealing and simply forgot about the subject matter.

There's more bite in the supporting cast, with juicy roles for David's irrepressible friend Danny (Dominic Cooper) and his barbie-doll girlfriend, Helen (Rosamund Pike). Although not versed in French or anything for that matter, Helen artfully calls Jenny out on her little airs and pretensions. Serving as perfect foils for David and Jenny, Danny and Helen are street-smart and extremely aware of themselves and their goals. There's also the requisite Emma Thompson as the Headmistress (as if anyone else would have been hired), Olivia Williams of Dollhouse as the dowdy teacher and Jenny's guide to a repressive life of learning, and Alfred Molina and Cara Seymour as the well-meaning but bumbling parents.

With a worthy cast and a decent screenplay from Nick Hornby, it's a pity that the rest of the movie was so lifeless. Every scene was carefully constructed, but the emotional barometer barely budged. As my fellow theater-goer said, "British movies are more about character development than plot." This may be true, but we don't take relationships lightly between 36 and 16 year olds (maybe it was more acceptable in the 1960s), and when the inevitable break-up happens, it should end with a bang and not with a whimper.