Rent It!

Director: Lone Scherfig.

Stars: Carey Mulligan, Peter Sarsgaard, Dominic Cooper, Rosamund Pike, Alfred Molina, Cara Seymour.

About:

Set in England in 1961, An Education revolves around schoolgirl Jenny Mellor (Mulligan) and her relationship with David Goldman (Sarsgaard), a sophisticated older man. Despite their significant age difference, David manages to woo Jenny and charm her protective parents, even whisking the young lady off to Paris.

Despite his fancy car and expensive clothes, David is no honest businessman. In order to cheaply purchase expensive apartments, David moves black families into neighbourhoods so that racist elderly women become desperate to move. David and his friend, Danny (Cooper), also steal art from homes. Although Jenny does not agree with David’s business, the life of luxury wins the schoolgirl over and she turns a blind eye to his actions.

Caught up in David’s world, Jenny sports gorgeous new dresses and begins painting on makeup to match Danny’s mature girlfriend. She lets her education fall by the wayside and even contemplates giving up her dream of attending Oxford.

An Education is a lovely film that displays the values and traditions followed by young women in the 1960s. I thoroughly enjoyed the film and it definitely has something for everyone; Fashion lovers can gush over Jenny’s outfits, academics can fight for Jenny to attend Oxford,  Sarsgaard fans can swoon over the leading man and comics are sure to get a chuckle thanks to Alfred Molina.

Rent if you like: Elegy and/or Atonement.
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