An Education (2009)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

An Education is a historical drama which premiered in 2009.

 

The story is set in England in 1961. There are two main characters in this drama: a young girl (Jenny) who meets and falls for an older man (David).

 

Here is some basic information about this drama:

 

** Director: Lone Scherfig

** Producer: Amanda Posey

** Writer: Nick Hornby

** Released on DVD in 2010

** Available via Amazon Prime Video

** Run time: 100 minutes

 

The cast includes the following:

 

The first group

** Carey Mulligan as Jenny Mellor – the young girl

** Peter Sarsgaard as David Goldman – the older man

** Dominic Cooper as Danny – David’s friend

** Rosamund Pike as Helen – Danny’s girlfriend

 

The second group

** Alfred Molina as Jack Mellor – Jenny’s father

** Cara Seymour as Marjorie Mellor – Jenny’s mother

** Emma Thompson as Miss Waters – the headmistress at Jenny’s school

** Olivia Williams as Miss Stubbs – one of Jenny’s teachers

 

The story begins in a suburb of London in 1961. Jenny is only 16. She is still in school. One day she meets an older man (David), who is 35. He has a car. He offers her a lift. She accepts. This is how the story begins.

 

At this moment, I will not say more than this, because I do not wish to spoil the viewing for anyone, but I have to mention a few details in order to explain and justify my rating. The details will come later (mild spoilers ahead).

 

What do reviewers say about this historical drama?

 

Here are the results of three review aggregators:

 

73 per cent = IMDb

78 per cent = Meta (the audience)

85 per cent = Meta (the critics)

80 per cent = Rotten Tomatoes (the audience)

93 per cent = Rotten Tomatoes (the critics)

 

On Amazon UK there are at the moment more than 160 reviews of this product. The average rating is 4.1 stars.

 

The famous movie critic Roger Ebert (1942-2013) was not easily impressed. But he loved this movie. He gave it four of four stars, which is a rating of 100 per cent.

 

The ratings are quite impressive, as you can see. Are they justified? At first, I thought this historical drama was highly overrated.

 

Why?

 

Because the story is creepy and totally unrealistic.

 

Jenny is only 16, while David is 35, but her parents love him and allow her to go out with him. They even give their blessing when David wants to take her on a trip to Paris! This is 1961! She is a minor! This is hard to believe. 

 

But this is not all. 

 

There is more:

 

David often visits Jenny at her home. He meets her parents. David and Jenny sometimes visit Danny and Helen at their place, but David and Jenny never go to David’s place. Why not?

 

Where does he live? Nobody asks this question. Why not? Does he have a job? He has a posh car and money and free time. But what does he do for a living? Nobody asks this question. Why not? This is hard to believe.

 

If this was a fictional story, I would offer a rating of one or two stars. Some reviewers do just that, because they find the story creepy and unrealistic.

 

But this is not a fictional story. This drama is based on a true story, a memoir written by Lynn Barber and first published in 2003.

 

When producer Amanda Posey read it, she bought the film rights and asked her boyfriend (and future husband) Nick Hornby to turn the memoir into a screenplay. The next step was to find some money. The final step was to hire some actors as well as the Danish director Lone Scherfig.

 

Lynn Barber later turned the original memoir into a book which was published in 2009. But at that time, the movie had already been filmed. The movie was filmed in 2008. Lynn Barber was invited to attend the production while a scene in Jenny’s school was being shot.

 

A comparison of the memoir and the movie shows that the movie has a high historical accuracy. Almost every detail that we see in the movie is historically correct.

 

The unrealistic scenes are true. They really happened. Jenny’s parents were naïve and so was Jenny.

 

Since the movie is based on a true story, I cannot offer a low rating just because the story is creepy and hard to believe.

 

When I accept that this story really happened, I have to follow the general trend and offer a good rating.

 

But how high can I go? I cannot go all the way to the top, because there is one significant flaw: the leading actress is too old for the role.

 

Lynn Barber (born 1944) was 16 in 1960 when this happened. For some reason, the movie is set one year later, in 1961. Jenny is supposed to be 16 in that year. The actress Carey Mulligan was born in 1985. In 2008, when the movie was filmed, she was 23.

 

In other words: she was seven years older than the character she was supposed to portray. She plays her role very well, but she is no teenager! I have to remove one star because of this flaw.

 

This is why I think this movie deserves a rating of four stars (80 percent).

 

PS # 1. In the drama, Jenny’s boyfriend is called David Goldman. His real name is Simon Goldman Prewalski.

 

In the drama, the headmistress at Jenny’s school is called Miss Waters. Her real name is Miss Garwood Scott.

 

PS # 2. In 1971, Lynn Barber married David M. C. Cardiff. They were married until his death in 2003.

 

Lynn Barber is still alive. She is a reporter and the author of several books.

 

PS # 3. The following items are available online:

 

Lynn Barber,

“My harsh lesson in love and life,”

The Guardian,

7 June 2009

[This item is an updated version of the memoir that was first published in 2003]

 

Geoffrey Levy,

“The incredible true story behind Bafta favourite An Education,”

The Daily Mail,

22 January 2010

 

Sara Murphy,

“The true story behind An Education,”

Medium,

5 December 2016

 

*****

An Education

by Lynn Barber

(2009)

 

*****