Truly, An Education wasn’t what I expected it would be going in.
To be fair, it was probably my fault. Concerned about sexual content, I looked it up on some family-oriented movie review sites. The kind of sites that warn parents about inappropriate material in films, and tell you which to stay far away from.
This particular website described An Education as pretty terrible. In not so many words, it said that the film was about a young girl being seduced by an older man who wanted to have sex with her. It said that the majority of the film surrounded this attempt, by the older man, to get the younger girl to have intercourse with him. It said that that was essentially the point of the film. I had my own reservations as well. Having recently seen Crazy Heart, I was still smarting from the classic Hollywood older man is swooned by much younger woman fantasy that that film let play out. An Education seemed like it would be much the same. But, as I’d find out, it wasn’t all about sex and it wasn’t just that same old Hollywood story.
Maria was insistent that we watch it, she was sure that it was going to be good, and so we did. It took about twenty minutes, but as my skepticism wore off what remained was an interest and an admiration for a film that was truly and deeply well-done. A film which, cleverly, isn’t merely an education for its young protagonist, but for all its characters, and again, for the viewer, too.
An Education is, indeed, a film about a young girl who falls in love with an older man, but it’s so much more than that. It’s a film about life and the choices that you make—it’s a kind of moral education. It wrestles with complicated issues of greed and money and the meaning of everything and does it with a truckload of class and charm and wit.
But the true cleverness of this film is in its enormous reach.
An Education has a sizeable cast of very different, and important characters representing specific moods and modes. In this way, there is a character for everyone to relate to. And as our main character goes through the twists and turns of life—and there are plenty of twists and turns—she brings everyone alongside her. Prejudices collapse, life lessons and positions are evaluated and re-evaluated, perceptions, hopes, dreams, wishes, ambitions shift and shift and shift again. And everyone is involved, and this is what I think is so clever. This isn’t the story of a young heroine learning her lessons, it’s about everyone, us included, learning too. As I watched the movie I found myself making certain moral judgments, rooting for and agreeing with certain characters, and then changing my mind altogether. And as I watched, I developed certain prejudices too, I made choices, and then re-evaluated them, I considered how I would act in a similar situation. I learned.
To be fair, I need to say something about the supporting cast. For her role as the main character, Carey Mulligan has received a lot of press, including some Best Actress nominations but her supporting cast shines as well. Nearly every supporting character acts their hearts out, and it shows.
An Education is exactly what it says it is, and I have a hard time finding fault. It’s a wonderful film. Well-written, well-acted, well-paced and full to the brim of both great comedy and gripping drama. Easily one of my favourite Best Picture picks for this year.
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