An Education

I can still remember seeing this at the cinema and knowing that, when it had finished, I had seen one of the best films of 2009 and one of the outstanding performances by any actor in any film that year. Watching An Education again reinforced everything I had originally thought about the film and I probably enjoyed it as much last night as I had several months ago.

The film begins in 1961 and follows a middle-class 16 year old, Jenny, who attends a rather exclusive sixth form college where, as the images behind the credits show, girls are not just taught mathematics, English and Latin, but how to walk correctly and dance. Unlike most sixth form colleges nowadays, some of the private schools then were as much about educating their students as they were about turning them into cultured, mannered and well-behaved individuals who would excel at University. Jenny is a girl who knows exactly what she wants, and that is to read English at Oxford University. Her parents are 100% behind her, so much so that they insist that she plays the cello so she can put it down on her CV as her "hobby/interest" and rigidly enforced every evening so that she spent enough time on her Latin homework to get that up to scratch and don't like spending too much time listening to French records.

Everything changes for Jenny when, following band practice, she is standing at the bus stop in the pouring rain and a car pulls, up the driver says he is a music lover and would hate the cello to be damaged by the rain. As it would be unseemly for her to get into a car with a strange man, he offers to give the cello a lift home while she walks beside the car. During this strange journey Jenny and the driver, David, begin talking and get to know as little about one another, enjoying each other's company. Realising the stupidity of the situation, Jenny eventually gets in and the two begin talking on the rather short journey back to her house. Just as she is taken by David, he is taken by her and, despite the age gap, they begin seeing each other; David using every ounce of his considerable charm to ensure that Jenny's parents are onside with every trip away and late night that this entails.

David is a man of means with a friend who is into purchasing Pre-Raphaelite paintings at auction and, Jenny being the educated young girl that she is, loves Pre-Raphaelite paintings so manages to worm a way out of school for an afternoon and go to Sotheby's with David and his friends, Danny and Helen. It isn't long before Jenny is swept off her feet with David's gifts and trips to the West End and even promises of Paris. Of course, this has a severely detrimental effect on Jenny's schoolwork and his way of earning a living isn't exactly moral but she doesn't care as she has, for the first time in her life, begun to have fun and realises there is more to life than translating Virgil, cello practice and wondering where Mr Rochester fits into Jane Eyre.


If the opening credits (with mentions of BBC Films) didn't tell you so, you would know there was something distinctly English about An Education as, even though the director is Danish and at least one of the cast members is American, they speak with clipped tones and act exactly as people did in the early 1960s. (I'm far too young to know this from first-hand experience, but my parents about that this was an extremely accurate portrayal of middle class life.) It is also am acutely observed social commentary on Britain in the early 1960s with the new arrivals from the West Indies, casual anti-Semitic remarks and, above all, the extremely limited place of women in society. There is a wonderful exchange between Jenny and her headmistress in which it is established that learning is difficult and boring and the job, once you have gained your degree from Oxford, will also be difficult and boring. Furthermore, because you are a woman, your career choices will be entirely limited to teaching or the civil service; without an education you would be a housewife with, should you be lucky enough to marry one, a rich husband.


This was adapted from a memoir by Lynn Barber and, when I was wondering why the dialogue sparkled and flowed so elegantly, I just reminded myself that the screenwriter was Nick Hornby, whose brilliant High Fidelity is one of my all-time favourite films. This combination of a real memoir with a man with a flair for writing means that the film feels real and truthful whilst the dialogue is full of wit, terrific lines and a real sense of joy. Each time I've watched this film, I have been left gobsmacked by just how assured Carey Mulligan's performance is, belying her lack of experience and she really holds her own against such great screen actors as Peter Sarsgaard, Alfred Molina, Olivia Williams and Emma Thompson. Just about everywhere you look, there is a great actor giving a sublime performance. As David's friends, Dominic Cooper and Rosamund Pike are just superb, especially Pike who plays the 'pretty but dim' Helen with deadpan brilliance.

I had a feeling that this would do extremely well amongst the critics and that's Carey Mulligan would be in with a shot at winning the Best Actress Oscar. The film did do exceptionally well both commercially and critically, winning numerous BAFTAs and nominated for three Academy Awards, with Mulligan losing out to Julia Roberts. Even though there were some stellar movies last year (The Hurt Locker, Precious and Up, to name just three), An Education was right up there with the best of them although it was far from a surprise that it did well in the British awards but less well in the United States. It is a terrific film and one that I could happily watch again.

The Disc

Extra Features
I expected a quite a lot from the commentary as it featured director Lone Scherfig and actors Carey Mulligan and Peter Sarsgaard so was surprised when there was quite a bit of dead air as the three seemed quite content to watch the film at times rather than talk about the scenes in question, how they became involved and what filming was like. There are some moments of interest as they talk about filming locations, the period setting and how much of the lines they still remember.

The Deleted Scenes (HD, 16:09) are all extremely good and it must have been extremely difficult to decide which ones to admit as they are all worthy of inclusion in the final film. The only reason I can guess is one of timing as isn't a single poor scene amongst them.

The Featurette (HD, 8:45) is one of the better EPK pieces that I've come across as there are interviews with members of the cast and crew about various aspects of the production and there is even a quick word from Lynn Barber; some of them have obviously moved on to do different things and it's quite amusing to see Carey Mulligan with bleached blonde hair!


The Picture
An Education comes on a dual layer disc with an absolutely stunning 1080p picture showcasing the sterling work that the art department did in recreating the period with quite breathtaking detail. The colours are strong and vibrant and skin tones are reassuringly realistic. The work that went into the production design, set decoration and costumes must have been extraordinarily difficult but it pays dividends in creating a portable period so that the dialogue and actions don't feel out of place.

Part of the film is almost a Pygmalion approach to Jenny's maturity and transformation from bookish schoolgirl to woman of the world with her hairstyle and clothes changing as she grows in confidence and becomes increasingly removed from her peers.


The Sound
You are given the choice of a DTS-HD Master Audio track or a LPCM 2.0 stereo one and both have their merits as this is not a film to show off your sound system and demonstrate the strengths of a high definition surround track. For the most part, An Education is dialogue dominated, with most of the sound coming from the front speakers and, even with the surround track on, the rear surrounds stay dormant for most of the running time. The only occasion when bass was noticeable was when they went into a posh restaurant and the music woke up the subwoofer, filtering out the LFEs beautifully so that you have the music in the background and the dialogue through the centre channel, with both extremely crisp and clear.

The disc caters for the deaf and hard of hearing as well as the visually impaired by including English HoH subtitles and a Dolby Digital 5.1 audio descriptive track.


Final Thoughts
Although it is difficult to compare this with something like Avatar, I would contend that An Education was one of the finest films of 2009 with remarkable direction, an intelligent and thoughtful screenplay and wonderful performances by the entire cast. Lone Scherfig is a little known director with only 2002's Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself as a film that most people would recognise but, with this film, she is firmly put herself on the map as a director with considerable skill who can get the most out of actors, both established and inexperienced.

Although this isn't the best disc you will ever come across, the quality of the movie more than compensates for the relatively average supplementary material.