An Education

Finally saw this after hearing good thing about Carey Mulligan's performance, and she does deliver a solid turn as Jenny, a smart young girl of 16 soon to be 17 imbued with a mission to make it to Oxford, but those plans are interrupted when a chance meeting in the rain with David (Peter Sarsgaard), an older man who takes a liking to Jenny. Soon David introduces Jenny to a life outside of books, Jenny is seduced by this other life and soon questions the value of an Oxford education.

The supporting cast is actually pretty good, as it features Alfred Molina has Jenny's dad, Emma Thompson as Jenny's head mistress at her school, Olivia Williams as one of Jenny's teacher who sees great promise in Jenny, Rosamond Pike as a somewhat ambition-less girlfriend/wife of David's friend Danny.

But as good as some of the work is from the supporting cast, the film is hampered by a script that doesn't have enough bite to it, and I wasn't really buying Sarsgaard as the character of David. Still, Carey Mulligan is the reason to see the film because she is really good in the film, and exhibited good screen presence.

I give it 3 stars, or a grade of B (mainly for Carey Mulligan's performance which is a shoo-in for a best actress Oscar nomination).