Drama

Romance

An Education

BBC Film

Wildgaze Films

Endgame Entertainment

United Kingdom

English

Carey Mulligan

Peter Sarsgaard

Dominic Cooper

Rosamund Pike

Olivia Williams

Alfred Molina

Cara Seymour

Sally Hawkins

Emma Thompson

James Norton

Amanda Fairbank-Hynes

William Melling

Connor Catchpole

Matthew Beard

Ellie Kendrick

Nick Sampson

Bel Parker

Luis Soto

Olenka Wrzesniewski

Bryony Wadsworth

Ashley Taylor-Rhys

Beth Rowley

Ben Castle

Mark Edwards

Tom Rees-Roberts

Arne Somogyi

Paul Pilot

Phil Wilkinson

Kate Duchêne

Lone Scherfig

Nick Hornby

Barney Pilling

Andrew McAlpine

Lucy Bevan

John de Borman

Gareth Bull

Joe Geary

Finola Dwyer

Camilla Stephenson

Jamie Laurenson

Adam Mendez

Caroline Levy

Kerry Brown

David M. Thompson

Natalie Humphries

Ben Smith

Gillian Dodders

Glenn Freemantle

Kle Savidge

James D. Stern

Amanda Posey

Nina Hartstone

Caroline O'Reilly

Amanda Keable

Andrea King

Wendy Japhet

Douglas Hansen

Jack Stew

Terry Woods

Andrew Felton

Anna Lynch-Robinson

Paul Englishby

Richard Straker

Odile Dicks-Mireaux

Simon J. Willis

Lynn Barber

Elizabeth Yianni-Georgiou

Tom Whitehead

CinemaSerf

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,

An Education Trailer

An Education | Official Trailer (2009)

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An Education

Cast & Crew

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Cast

Carey Mulligan

Peter Sarsgaard

Dominic Cooper

Rosamund Pike

Olivia Williams

Alfred Molina

Cara Seymour

Sally Hawkins

Emma Thompson

James Norton

Box office

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