JoMo Goes Gaga

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"An Education, which was shot by John De Borman and designed by Andrew McAlpine, is a morality tale that often plays like high comedy," says Wall Street Journal criicket Joe Morgenstern. That's due in large part to Carey Mulligan.

An Education's Carey Mulligan

"After seeing the movie last month at the Telluride Film Festival, I wrote that everyone there seemed to be comparing her to Audrey Hepburn. The comparison is irresistible, and not only because Jenny sometimes wears her hair upswept in a Holly Golightly do, or because Hepburn played a young woman opposite an older man in at least three movies -- Sabrina, Love in the Afternoon and My Fair Lady. (In five if you count Funny Face and Charade, neither of which dwelled on the age difference.)

"The 24 year-old Mulligan, like Hepburn has a way of endearing herself with little more than a lilting phrase -- her speaking voice is as rich as Juliet Greco's singing voice -- or a flashing glance. But it's her own way, and she's her own special edition of a dazzling new star.

"The first time I saw her was almost a year ago, in a superb Broadway production of The Seagull, with a cast that included Peter Sarsgaard as Trigorin; she played Nina, the sacrificial creature of Chekhov's title. She was electrifying from her first entrance, when Nina speaks of having been in a fever all day, and cries joyously, 'The sky is clear, the moon is rising!' Either an actress has the skill to make those extravagant lines her own or she doesn't, and Ms. Mulligan had skill, and passion, to burn.

"In An Education, where she's completely convincing as a 16-year-old -- the movie was shot two years ago -- she has created a complete original. Jenny is, to toss off a French phrase, always on the qui vive; it's as if she's listening intently to the life around her for clues about how it works. Both her beauty and her agile mind allow her to be precocious without being insufferable. And she isn't merely sufferable, she's admirable for the purity of her responses to culture -- Jenny plays the cello as an ardent amateur -- if not the clarity of her insights about love.

"When David takes her and a couple of his philistine friends to a concert, she's the only one who loves the music. (The cello is a magnificent instrument, but I do wish filmmakers would occasionally use another one to signify a lyrical spirit.)

"If purity were Jenny's main quality, she, and the movie, would be a bore. No danger of that, though, because her motives are mixed, her gift for deviousness is impressive and she, like her semidrab middle-class parents, becomes complicit in a series of choices that may put an end to her dreams of going to Oxford, and bring down the shining promise of her life before she's ever had a chance to take off.

"The director, Ms. Scherfig, is Danish, but she is manifestly at home working in English. (Her previous English-language features, both highly recommended, are Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself and Italian for Beginners.) Direction can't be seen, but Ms. Scherfig's approach makes itself felt in a sparkling stream of felicitous choices. She's a poet of natural rhythms and intimate insights, and this new film will make her a star in her own realm.

"What it will do for the movie's star is another matter. One thinks not only of Hepburn, but of Julie Christie bursting upon the world in Billy Liar. That was a very small role, though. Ms. Mulligan is the heart and soul of An Education, and she's phenomenal. The whole film is phenomenal. I love it."

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Posted by Jeffrey Wells on October 9, 2009 at 11:12 AM

comment #1

George Prager says ...

Bleak House

Posted by George Prager at October 9, 2009 12:01 PM

comment #2

sumo-pop says ...

An I the only person who sees a young Kerry Fox when I look at her?

Posted by sumo-pop at October 9, 2009 1:37 PM

comment #3

lipranzer says ...

I was worried this would be another movie that didn't live up to the hype, but happily, that wasn't the case. Mulligan is every bit as good as advertised, but she's not the only one - everyone is good, from Alfred Molina to Cara Seymour as the parents, to Sarsgaard as the boyfriend, Dominic Cooper and Rosamund Pike as the friends, Olivia Williams as the teacher, Emma Thompson as the headmistress, and Sally Hawkins in a small role (which I won't give away). And Scherfig gives space to each performance, allowing characters to come on screen, rather than types.

One thing I would disagree with Morgenstern on - CHARADE did make somewhat of a deal about the age difference between Hepburn and Grant, as I recall.

Posted by lipranzer at October 9, 2009 1:53 PM

comment #4

jbf81 says ...

she is getting rave after rave, I am starting to believe that she has a real chance to win the Oscar.

Posted by jbf81 at October 9, 2009 2:09 PM

comment #5

Eloi Manning says ...

The Academy took about five nominations before they finally gave Winslet an award, so don't hold your breath. They'll find a way to give it to Streep somehow.

Posted by Eloi Manning at October 9, 2009 3:04 PM

comment #6

George Prager says ...

2012 trailer: The Actor's version

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iX6cfzDpd_o

Posted by George Prager at October 9, 2009 3:12 PM

comment #7

jbf81 says ...

yeahhh Eloi, but they also gave it to Gwyneth on her first time, strange things can happen.

Posted by jbf81 at October 9, 2009 3:22 PM

comment #8

DarthCorleone says ...

lipranzer beat me to it on the Charade comment. I believe that Cary Grant made a point of having the age-difference remarks being written into the script because he felt it was so egregious to be playing opposite Audrey Hepburn romantically.

That said, that movie plays so tongue-in-cheek in tone that I don't know if "dwelling" on the age difference would be the right way to describe it. It's almost a self-aware self-deprecation that renders the pairing perfectly acceptable.

Posted by DarthCorleone at October 9, 2009 4:16 PM

comment #9

Freddie Mertz says ...

Jeff -- As a guy who makes his living off of web-based advertising, I am surprised you have been so willing to reproduce other's work in whole, rather than linking to their ad-supported sites.

Posted by Freddie Mertz at October 9, 2009 7:08 PM

comment #10

ZayTonday says ...

I just got my ticket to check this out tonight @ the Arclight. I'll post my impressions after if I'm not too tired. You've got me hyped for this Wells.

Posted by ZayTonday at October 9, 2009 8:12 PM

comment #11

ZayTonday says ...

Holy crap what a great movie. Every bit of Wells' sustained hyperbole about this flick over the last few months is completely warranted. Everything from the expert direction and cinematography that gave the movie this intangibly timeless feel like you were watching some classic film that could have come out of the 60s or 70s to the exceptional stand-out acting by every single person in the movie to the brilliantly written screenplay; it was all beyond incredible. It's been quite a long time since a movie has put a noticeable smile on my face so often throughout its duration. The last one to pull that off was probably Speed Racer which you guys will probably deride me for but I can't think of one before that in recent memory.

It surpassed my already high expectations and I'll be damned if Mulligan doesn't get the Best Actress Oscar for her outstanding performance.

Oh and I saw a trailer for Rob Marshall's "Nine" prior to the film. I thought it was going to be just another run-of-the-mill Rob Marshall Musical but holy hell that guy is batshit crazy for actually having the balls to do a sequel to 8 1/2. I had no idea that this was the premise of the movie. I have to see that now.

Posted by ZayTonday at October 10, 2009 12:02 AM

comment #12

Guy Lodge says ...

ZayTonday: It's NOT a sequel to "8 1/2." It's a musical interpretation of the film that first appeared on Broadway almost 30 years ago. Not that ballsy.

As for "An Education," yeah, it's terrific. So good that the inevitable snob backlash is surely only days away.

Posted by Guy Lodge at October 10, 2009 2:05 AM

comment #13

ZayTonday says ...

Guy Lodge: Oh really, so Marshall is still a hack then. Never mind.

Posted by ZayTonday at October 10, 2009 2:18 AM

comment #14

air nike shoes says ...

she is getting rave after rave, I am starting to believe that she has a real chance to win the Oscar.

Posted by air nike shoes at October 10, 2009 5:31 AM

comment #15

orler says ...

"An Education, which was shot by John De Borman"

Would have been cooler if it was shot by John Boorman............

Posted by orler at October 10, 2009 4:56 PM

comment #16

Eloi Manning says ...

It was a really good film. Quite a feminist movie in lots of ways. Olivia Williams was excellent, I thought. Her performance hasn't really been mentioned much, but the scenes with her and Mulligan were my favorites by some distance.

Posted by Eloi Manning at October 10, 2009 5:13 PM

comment #17