Of all the 377 films playing at the 28th Annual Vancouver International Film Festival, there was really only one film that I wanted to see. That film was An Education.
It had great buzz coming from Sundance and even greater buzz from the Toronto International Film Festival. All of this was surrounding one person: Carey Mulligan who plays the central character Jenny.
This is Mulligan's breakthrough role and her first lead. Now, I've been very familiar with this young actress ever since I saw her play Ada Clare in 2005's BBC adaptation of Charles Dickens' Bleak House. I believe she made her feature debut as Kitty Bennett in 2005's big screen Pride and Prejudice.
But in An Education, Mulligan gives a standout performance as Jenny, a 16-year-old school girl in 1961 and destined for English studies at Oxford until one-day she is offered a ride home during a torrential downpour from an older man, David (Peter Sarsgaard).
Jenny's life is thrown into turmoil as she starts seeing David who gives her an education in life by talking her to jazz clubs and auctions, weekends to Oxford and Paris. She is also exposed to David's circle of friends, Danny (Dominic Cooper) and Helen (Rosamund Pike, playing the perfect dumb blond).
So soon Jenny realizes her school education may not be all cracked up and the life her parents, in particular her over-protective father (played to perfection by the always reliable Alfred Molina), wanted for her seems to be thrown in turmoil as she delves further in her relationship with David.
Sarsgaard is perfectly charming as David and you can see how Jenny falls for his charm and lifestyle. Another reason for me to love this film is that they keep on referencing Jane Eyre, which is one of the novel's that Jenny is studying in Miss Stubbs' (Olivia Williams) English class and her classmates keep on calling David, Jenny's Mr. Rochester.
While David seemed to be the perfect suitor, I kept on waiting for the other shoe to drop and have Jenny's world come crashing around her.
When that time comes, you do feel for her and one of my favorite lines of the film is when Miss Stubbs notes that Jenny sounds old and wise from all that she's been through, Jenny says back that "I feel old, but not wise." Mulligan's delivery of that line was note perfect.
An Education plays again at VIFF09 on October 14, 2009 at 11am GR7.
http://www.viff.org/tixSYS/2009/filmguide/films/2628
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