An Education (2009)

Sixteen year old "Jenny" (Carey Mulligan) lives with her aspiring, middle class, parents "Jack" (Alfred Molina) and "Marjorie" (Cara Seymour) whose only real desire in life is for her to study at Oxford University. This is and has been her sole focus throughout her childhood, until, that is - she encounters the dashing "David" (Peter Skarsgard). He's easily twice her age but is so much more stimulating than her schoolboy friend "Graham" (Matthew Beard). This isn't a sweep her off her feet relationship, he gradually engages her in conversation and finds they share common interests. He makes her feel special, interesting, grown up - and when he introduces her to his friends "Danny" (Dominic Cooper) and "Helen" (Rosamund Pike) she starts to feel like the proper fourth wheel on a social wagon that's truly exhilarating. Needless to say, her schoolwork starts to suffer - much to the chagrin of her teacher (Olivia Williams) and, like we all were at that age, there's no telling her that her short term path is not necessarily in her long term interests. As the film develops, we discover that though harmless enough, "David" and his pal are a pair of cads who make their living legally, but maybe just a little immorally - and when "Jenny" discovers that he has one whopping great (if predictable) skeleton in his closet, she has to put her new found maturity to good use. There's something very natural not just about Mulligan's performance here, but also about her burgeoning relationship with a man who knows just which buttons to press. He's not a nasty man, he has no agenda to get her straight into bed, indeed he seems just as dependent on having this young woman around to make him feel alive as she does him; and those characterisations proves quite effective. The star for me, though, was probably Molina. He portrays almost perfectly a father whose dreams for his daughter partnered with his own middle-class mores leaves him caught between his paternal instincts to protect his daughter and his ambitions that she live a better, more fulfilled, life than he. It does run out of steam a little at the end, but then again I'm not quite sure how I would have wanted it to conclude without copping out - one way or another, so maybe it is for the best. It looks classy, the 1960s cars, costumes and soundtrack see to that and it's well worth a watch,