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An Education Starring Peter Sarsgaard, Carey Mulligan, Alfred Molina, Dominic Cooper, Rosamund Pike, Olivia Williams, Emma Thompson, Cara Seymour, Matthew Beard and Sally Hawkins Screenplay by Nick Hornby Adapted from a memoir by Lynn Barber Directed by Lone Scherfig website:

IN SHORT: The difference between American and Brit "losing 'it'" films. [Rated PG-13 for mature thematic material involving sexual content, and for smoking. 100 minutes]

Ah, the loss of virginity. Usually the bait for smarmy snicker-filled gags if run through American eyes, here we have a serious Brit take on that time of life. Set in 1961, a time when "liberation" meant little more than father passing off daughter to a new husband. So it goes.

Student Jenny (Carey Mulligan) is 16 and stuck waiting for a bus, with cello, in the pouring rain. She takes cello lessons at school because it will look good on her application to Oxford, according to her father. David (Peter Sarsgaard) happens to drive by and offers a ride. She, properly raised, refuses. He offers to carry the cello and let her walk alongside, even paying a cashh deposit to guarantee he will not steal the instrument. Eventually the rain soaked girl relents and climbs into the car. He, very properly, drives her home. That would be the end of story, except for the fact that that wouldn't make much of a movie.

Father (Alfred Molina) pushes daughter Jenny very hard, for that's what is needed to be done to gain entry to Oxford University, one of the Kingdom's finest and daddy's choice. Given the time frame, it takes little to figure out that his motive (and, perhaps the mom's as well) is to put the beloved daughter in the right company to land a soon to be spectacularly successful husband. Jenny's girlfriends are all giggly at the older male's attention. The more suitable Graham (Matthew Beard) is awkward and unaware of the competition. The babble of schoolgirls will eventually be overheard by the school's Headmistress (Emma Thompson) and Jenny's teacher, Miss Stubbs (Olivia Stubbs). Both are, for diferent reasons, strongly disapproving. It's not necessarily the age difference that bothers the grownups aroud Jenny. It's just that, well, you know, he's Jewish and all that. [We have family in the UK. Things have changed a bit.]

The pair party with David's business partner Danny (Dominic Cooper) and his dimbulb of a blonde girlfriend Helen (Rosamund Pike). David and Danny's business involves working with negro people and old ladies... Once during the film they pop into a "for sale" house and "liberate" an old map. What are David and Danny? Are they thieves? Of a sort, but calling them thieves would be like calling Bernie Madoff a good guy to pick up a quick $10 millions if things get short. No, David is a blockbuster. He hires negroes (remember the time frame) and either sells them or places them in houses recently vacated due to the death of a widowed, white tenant. When the rest of the existing white neighbors go running for the hills -- the presence of negroes in a white neighborhood decimates the property values dontchaknow -- David and Danny swoop in and scoop up the virtually abandoned properties, paying mere pennies on the British Pound and making a killing in real estate. "Hey," says David, "It's the  only business left open ot us. What would you have us do?"

We can't speak as a British Jew, We can write as an American member of the Tribe and we will: said practice is despicable. Period. Blockbusters are the lowest form of legitimate businessmen on the planet, at least of the few kinds of businesmen of whom we are aware. We used to work with lawyers, so our eyes are wide open when writing that last sentence.

When told that David had attended Oxford and knows famed professor/ writer C. S. Lewis personally, mom and dad OK an unsupervised jaunt upcountry.Somehow we think there was a reference to an (imaginary) chaperone called "aunt Helen" who is referenced in our press notes as serving a similar function on a trip to Paris, later in the film. That trip, which follows closely upon Jenny's 17th birthday, is the time and place she decides to let David have his way.

He profers a ring. She accepts. Her school kicks her out. And then things really hit the fan -- but that would be telling. An Education is as much an exploration of moral settings in a time not all that different but oh, so far away as it is just the usual boy gets girl flick. As any human ages, he or she learns by doing and the film's title farily reflects that. Jenny gets learned. Mom and Dad get learned. We're not going to talk about what happens to David.

On average, a first run movie ticket will run you Ten Bucks. Were Cranky able to set his own price to An Education, he would have paid . . .

$7.00

Those prefering arthouse friendly films will adore An Education. Those who just want a good sit at a movie that maes sense should like it, too.

	Click to buy films by Lone Scherfig
	Click to buy films starring Peter Sarsgaard
	Click to buy films starring Alfred Molina
	Click to buy films starring Emma Thompson