... History repeats itself in 'An Education'

This past Wednesday night I met my mom at the Edina 4 theater to see An Education, followed by dinner at one of my favorite Twin Cities restaurants, Salut.  Both the movie and the dinner were, as predicted, very enjoyable and are thus highly recommended to my readers.  

Newcomer and Oscar nominee Carey Mulligan gives a strong and memorable performance in the lead as 16/17 year old "Jenny," a bright, overachieving prep-school student working her way towards Oxford in a London suburb. She's smarter than your average bear -- or in this case, her female classmates -- yet she's very sheltered by her controlling father and clueless mother, who breathe down her neck making sure she's studying her Latin (after all she's only getting a B) and not daydreaming about Paris listening to French records.

Yet being savvy and wise for her age still doesn't make her worldly, and it doesn't take much effort from the flirtatious Peter Sarsgaard as "David," whose charm and lifestyle quickly prove irresistible on a young lass roughly half his age.  Culturally stifled Jenny jumps at the chance to experience new adventures with an older, sophisticated crowd -- especially when they're paying. One would think this movie could be quite predictable; young student falls for older man and proceeds to get her heart broken, while learning something on the way.  And that’s exactly what happens, but if you couldn’t figure that out from the trailer, well you’re probably the type of person who be into this movie anyway. :)

It’s a quiet movie, artfully shot and more or less a period piece (set in 1961). But what stands out here is the acting: Sarsgaard, as the Rolling Stone review puts it, “is shockingly good at walking the line between charming opportunist and sexual predator.”  24-year old Mulligan is believable and especially endearing as Jenny. The audience knows bad news is coming her way the entirety of the movie, yet while what exactly that will be remains a mystery to the audience, at least we have the upper hand on Jenny; we're mature enough to know when something is too good to be true. The heartbreaking thing to watch is that her character is smart enough to know something isn’t 100% kosher with David; yet, in the end she proves too immature to foresee that his lies and charms aren't only fooling her parents.   

My favorite performance was actually from the supporting character “Helen”: presented falsely as chaperone “Aunt Helen” to Jenny’s parents, in reality she’s a ditzy blond who’s along for the ride (literally). Unable to follow conversation about art, music, and literature with David and his culturally impressive posse (Jenny at 16 doesn’t miss a beat), Helen is only here for the clothes and jewelry. Yet the great thing about her character is she doesn’t become a caricature of herself.  Instead of being comic relief through “dumb blond” remarks, it’s all in her facial expressions. Her eyes plead for a dance with a likeness of an impatient puppy waiting to be picked up. They tell you she’s on another planet at an orchestral concert. Disgust at the tour of Oxford. And so on.  Another highlight of the movie for me was the jaw-dropping disbelief at a suggestion David’s character makes about a banana. That’s all I’ll say about that.