Short Take: It's message is clear as crystal, but what's impressive is how it sends it

Director: Lone Scherfig (English debut)

Screenwriter: Nick Hornby (About a Boy, High Fidelity), based on memoirs by Lynn Barber

Cast: Carey Mulligan (Brothers), Peter Sarsgaard (Jarhead), Alfred Molina (The Hoax), Rosamund Pike (Surrogates)

Length: 1h 35m

Synopsis: A 16 year old girl in 1960s England falls for an older man who promises to take her away from her boring life and show her the cultures of the world that she only dreamt of seeing. They enjoy many glamorous times together, but at the cost of the girl’s chances at getting into Oxford University. Eventually, the girl must choose which life to pursue, and her decision is a reflection of how smart she truly is.

Analysis: The basic story of a girl being wooed by an older man who is able to show her exciting places and things is hardly new. Many films and even sitcoms have by now seemingly exhausted this simple tale, and so I withhold no trepidation in spoiling the ending of An Education because you the reader are already intuitively aware of it. However, like with many films, it is the journey and not the destination which matters most. This being said, it is indeed the journey within An Education which separates it from much of its company.

The conflict within the main conflict is also familiar, but its presence will perhaps always be valid because it is based from a question that we all ask ourselves at one point or another while growing up. The girl, Jenny (Mulligan), is torn between living the life she dreams of and the one that her family and society have designed for her. Back in 1960s England, like many places back then, even women with prestigious educations were given limited career opportunities, many of them resulting in positions still within the realm of academia. Jenny perceives this future as more of a dead end than a full and rewarding life, utterly frightened at the boredom and hollowness that such a fate must have. So, a life of glamour, danger, travel, and culture would naturally present itself as being more alluring. How lucky she must have felt to find herself with such an incredible second option to a future she couldn’t avoid well enough. Deciding on which destiny to choose simply could not be an easier task — or so she once thought.

Along with the lesson of “nothing is what it seems” there is also the discovery of the true purpose of things (or rather, certain things). In order to live the life she wanted, Jenny would have had to sacrifice more than what she was willing to lose. Suffice it to say that these are not tangible things. There are always multiple paths that lead to the same destination, however not every path can be navigated towards that destination. The destination dictates the journey, which means the starting point is just as important as the ending point. Jenny realizes that in living the fast life she was living with people who were doing the same – avoiding pressures, parameters, and responsibilities. Those who cut corners on the path towards happiness often sacrifice too much to do so, such as the happiness of others and their responsibilities towards them. Such sacrifices were not worth the rewards for Jenny. The purpose of her original destination (Oxford) became clear. In order to be where she wanted to be she would have to resort to her previous path but with the knowledge that said path would lead her to many others.

The fact that this story, which could have been told by any number of means, is connected to the educational system allows it to be interpreted in certain ways (adding to the depth of the film’s title). One obvious way is to look at Jenny’s predicament as an allegory for many students everywhere. For example, a documentary titled War on Kids examines the American education system and its methods of preparing students for their futures. Its conclusions are more or less the same as Jenny’s. Her hatred for boredom arguably results from her education (i.e. life, for that age) being on rails. And she claims, as some people do, that all these educators are doing is shoving students along this railed path towards a destination/future that they fail to articulate. Some might say it is the equivalent of telling someone to buy a product without giving them reasons to do so other than saying “you ought to.” This supposed flaw in the education system (America’s and England’s being similar to most of the western world’s in many regards) could then be interpreted as a criticism of modern education practices period. Perhaps this criticism could go so far as to say that the education systems we know of fail to teach us not about scholarly subjects, but about life. It would be an unfortunate irony that a system designed to steer youths towards a productive life don’t in fact provide enough guidance to assure achievement of such a goal. However, that Jenny might embody this viewpoint is not the final word on the matter. The happenings of her journey suggest that she realizes there are different kinds of education. Through her story she learns about other people, and more importantly she learns about herself. Such lessons can be taught at school, just not necessarily by the teachers and their curriculum. One way to interpret the film is to envision it as an adult talking down to a teenager saying “You think you know more than you do” and being right. And whether you’re a teenager or of some other age, it’s a harsh lesson to learn – no matter where you learn it.

Rating: 8.5