Tagline:
Innocence of the Young.

Wide Release Date:
February 5, 2010

Directed by:
Lone Scherfig
Screenplay by:
Nick Hornby
Based on the memoir by:
Lynn Barber
Produced by:
Finola Dwyer, Amanda Posey

Starring:
Carey Mulligan
Peter Sarsgaard
Alfred Molina
Rosamund Pike
Dominic Cooper
Olivia Williams
Emma Thompson

PREGAME THOUGHTS

Lynn Barber’s memoir is on my list of books to get to round out my comfortably-sized coming-of-age collection. I was scrolling through Hulu looking for something similar to Dazed and Confused and saw this available on the streaming service.

I’m not one to ever watch a movie before reading the book, but I figured that it would be years before I got around to reading the book and by then I’ll forget all about the story! So why not?!

THE 600(ish)-WORD SYNOPSIS

It’s 1961, and Jenny Mellor (Carey Mulligan) is a London teenager looking to get accepted at Oxford. Her father, Jack (Alfred Molina) is strict, pushy, and hard to please. One day, while waiting for a bus in the rain with her cello, older male specimen and tall drink of water David Goldman (Peter Sarsgaard), a man Jenny does not know, drives by in his fancy-ass car and offers her cello a ride. She accepts, and she walks alongside him while he drives slowly and they bond quickly over music, French film, art, and Hostess Cupcakes. When it rains harder, Jenny jumps in his car. She’s smitten by the time he drops her off.

You don’t know it yet, but I really want to pound that underage pussy, ma’am.

About a week later, Jenny runs into David outside a café while she hangs out with her friends. He invites her to a dinner and a concert with his friends, and she agrees. On the night of the event, Jack is hesitant to let Jenny go out of town while her mother Marjorie (Cara Seymour) tells Jack to lighten up. When David comes to pick up Jenny, Jack finds him so charming and disarming that he agrees to let him take Jenny home past curfew.

Jenny meets David’s sleazy friends, the smug Danny (Dominic Cooper) and the ditzy Helen (Rosamund Pike). Jenny has a great time. David invites her to an art auction after school, where she bids on and wins a painting. They retire to Danny’s house for drinks, where they talk about Oxford. Ah yes, David’s old stomping grounds. Let’s visit next weekend! …but Jenny isn’t confident that her parents will let her spend a whole weekend out of town.

Well, guess what lady. One night, David is smoking and drinking with your folks and charming the pants off of them. After he asks them if Jenny can to Oxford, they’re reluctant at first but then decide that visiting the school is a good opportunity ESPECIALLY since, ahem, David’s gonna visit his old teacher C.S. Lewis. Ever heard of him?

Well, at Oxford, Jenny discovers that David is a con man and gets very close to storming out on him until he charmingly gets her to stay. This should have been the first and only clue Jenny needed, but she does not TAKE HEED and pay attention to her instincts. When David drops her off at home, they kiss. When Jenny presents a “signed” copy of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, her parents are impressed and approve of their extremely fucking inappropriate relationship.

David announces his intentions to take Jack and Marjorie’s daughter to Paris for her 17th birthday. They’re like “uhhhhh, ok” about that. Paris is nothing short of a dream! Picture perfect! Jenny and David bone while they’re there.

You’re going to pound my daughter’s underage pussy, is that it? Be back by 10.

When she gets back, Jenny tries to give her teacher Miss Stubbs (Olivia Williams) a souvenir. She declines, knowing where it came from and why she was in Paris. She disapproves heartily. Jenny is taken aback.

Later, David proposes to Jenny and she says yes. Jenny speaks with the school’s headmistress Miss Walters (Emma Thompson) and, after an argument, Jenny drops out of school.

Let’s cut to the chase: Jenny discovers that David is already married, which really fucks her up. Jenny needs David to help her tell her parents, but David drives off and doesn’t show his face anymore. In a daze of disillusionment and depression, Jenny all but begs her way back into the school, and while Miss Walters declines her re-enrollment, Miss Stubbs takes her request for help. She eventually gets accepted into Oxford.

A harsh lesson is learned all around: don’t fly to Paris with Peter Sarsgaard.

TOM’S DISCUSSION CORNER

TOPIC 1 — General Movie Thoughts

Oof. So, I was sitting there about 50 minutes into the movie beyond uncomfortable and wondering if I had decided to power through a film that was completely not for me. 1960s British high society pretentiousness weaved in with a very creepy and inappropriate relationship between an older man and a high school student. For literally half the movie I had no idea what An Education was really trying to be about, and I spent the whole chunk just worried that it was going to be exactly about what I didn’t want it to be about. And it pretty much was about that anyway.

This was pretty much my constant reaction throughout the whole film.

Let me just say that I’m glad, in the end, that nothing about An Education was glorifying the romantic relationship between David and Jenny. All the elegant chic fashion, the glamorous jazz parties, the French cultural sensibilities, it all gave it a veneer of stylishness and that fooled me into thinking that. It certainly fooled Jenny, who became infatuated with the lifestyle more than she was infatuated with David. I just hated seeing these scenes with the two of them in bed together. Or the scene where he asked to see her topless. Or just the way he sort of came onto her, even innocently, the first time. I hated all of that. I had a visceral reaction to it.

The last 20 minutes were worth it. The relief that An Education was all about a teenage girl being very, very stupid and having reality crash down on her head with gargantuan force made me see the rest of the movie in a different light. It was never actually about the relationship. It was about a naïve and sheltered girl who lived a very ordinary and repressed existence until an experienced, predatorial man showed up in her life to pull her out of it and into the world of her dreams. She just happened to conflate it with romantic love for this sad, sick little man who led her on. Brutal and unfair. If there was ever a crowning coming-of-age moment in the history of media, the scene where Jenny learns that David is already married should be way up there on that list. You can just FEEL Jenny turn back into a quivering 16-year-old girl who was just taught a very harsh lesson she didn’t deserve to learn. Me feeling nauseated the whole time was the right emotion. Good for me.

TOPIC 2 — David and Jenny

OK, fuck it. Let me delve deeper into this. At the end of the movie, Jenny musters up some courage to visit David’s house where she sees his pretty and plain, sad wife and his dumpy child. David’s wife, oh, she’s been through all of this before, hasn’t she. Been there, done that, bought the postcard. But Jenny’s the youngest so far! HOO-WEEE!! David is such a scamp.

David portrayed himself as this seasoned, classy socialite who was educated, well connected, and endlessly charming and interesting. He was everything Jenny thought she needed at a time in her life when essays and exams and a hard-ass dad were all there was. And, obviously, David wasn’t doing it to be kind and helpful to the girl. Anyone could’ve seen that one coming a fucking mile away from the very moment he approached her in his car while she was walking out in the rain.

Stick this in your tailpipe, Axel Foley.

What do men like David want with girls like Jenny, anyway? Right now I’m 37 and I couldn’t imagine dating anyone younger than even 32, Jesus Christ. You’d have nothing in fucking common, I don’t care if you bond over French poetry and jazz improvisations. No 30+-year-old has anything in common with a 16-year-old, ok? What the fuck.

Never mind, I’m grossed out all over again. Why did I watch this so close to American Beauty anyway? At least Kevin Spacey didn’t actually fuck that girl. Goddamnit, people.

IMDb TRIVIA FUNHOUSE!

Orlando Bloom dropped out a week before filming began. Dominic Cooper, who had previously been in talks, replaced him.
Hey fellas, remember Orlando Bloom? I certainly don’t!

In the beginning of this movie, Jenny’s fringe is neatly parted. As she becomes more and more involved with David, her fringe starts to descend until it is completely down. This shows she is now a part of his world. Then, as she starts to move away from him, her hair becomes parted again.
“This shows she is now a part of his world” is really fucking reaching here, since bangs aren’t a metaphor for shit. Nice try.

This movie marks the first time in his fifteen-year career that Peter Sarsgaard received top billing. He had been attached to this movie for several years.
I SO VERY MUCH WANT TO PLAY A CREEPER PEDOPHILE, OH PLEASE OH PLEASE OH PLEASE!

David Goldman’s (Peter Sarsgaard’s) nickname for Jenny Mellor (Carey Mulligan) is pronounced and spelled in subtitles as “bubbalub”. Since David is Jewish, this was possibly intended to be the Yiddish word “bubbalah”, which means “honey” or “sweetie”.
Couldn’t even get this one right, huh? No one did their homework? Check the internet? Just ran with “bubbalub”? OK, good work team.

I real bubbalub if I ever saw one.

IS IT WORTH A WATCH?

OK, yes, it was. It’s a good movie. Movies are art, and art is supposed to make you feel things. An Education was a success in this respect even though I hated how it was making me feel. I DON’T WANT TO SEE OLDER MEN SEDUCE TEENAGE GIRLS. But the final message of the movie is one of caution, and I’m glad Jenny ended up getting into Oxford despite her silly and dangerous mistakes.

I just don’t think I’ll be reading the book anytime soon. I’ve cringed enough for one lifetime, thanks.