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An Education Our rating: Your rating:   MPAA rating: PG-13 (for mature thematic material involving sexual content, and for smoking) Genre: Drama Theater release: October 09, 2009 by Sony Pictures Classics Directed by: Lone Sherfig Runtime: 1 hour 35 minutes Cast: Carey Mulligan (Jenny), Peter Sarsgaard (David), Dominic Cooper (Danny), Rosamund Pike (Helen), Alfred Molina (Jack) Related: Talk About It/Family Corner

It's a sign of the times that the May-December relationship at the center of An Education is unique. Why unique? Because May is the woman and December is the man. How romantically retro and almost refreshing in this age of cougarism. Of course, we have to flash back to 1961 in a London suburb to find this bit of rom-dram history. But it's a mostly delightful walk down memory lane. 

Our May is Jenny (Carey Mulligan), a 16-year-old student at an all-girls prep school. She's bright and bored under the watchful eye of her overprotective and driven dad. As she listens to smuggled jazz records in her bedroom, Jenny is just itching to get on with her life—mirroring the culture around her just recovering from the depression of war and teetering on the brink of the decadent '60s.

December is David (Peter Sarsgaard), the 30something man who rescues Jenny and her cello from a rainy walk home after orchestra practice. Though Jenny is reluctant to get into a car with a complete stranger, David slowly charms her into the dry sanctuary of his roadster's passenger seat.

Carey Mulligan as Jenny

Over the following weeks, he slowly charms his way into Jenny's heart as well. With bouquets of flowers, expensive meals in smoky clubs, and trips to the opera, David provides that larger life, that something more Jenny has been craving. Along the way, David always has his handsome business partner, Danny (Dominic Cooper), and Danny's beautiful but vacuous girlfriend, Helen (Rosamund Pike), in tow—providing not just a relationship, but a community for Jenny to belong to. And Helen is more than happy to make over Jenny from a generic schoolgirl into an Audrey-Hepburn-esque knockout. It's as if Helen has a new pet.

While wooing Jenny is relatively easy, it's charming her by-the-book dad (Alfred Molina) and slightly-less-conservative mom that's the real challenge for David. But he takes this challenge in stride, even convinces the couple to let him take their daughter to Paris for her 17th birthday. He's that good. Which should be a warning to Jenny. As should the dubious way he and Danny bankroll their luxe life. But she's too smitten with this older man and the lifestyle to which he's introduced her to really notice—or care.

Peter Sarsgaard as David

In fact, Jenny's so smitten that she begins to rethink the Oxford education she's been working toward for years. What use is an expensive education if she'll soon marry off and be at home anyway, she asks her bewitched parents, her disappointed teacher, and her strict headmistress. What is the point of an education? And which education does she want and value most? These are the questions she grapples with throughout the rest of the film.

An Education is based on a memoir by British journalist Lynn Barber. Novelist Nick Hornby (High Fidelity, About a Boy) took her 10-12 page story, which originally appeared in a literary magazine, and crafted the screenplay. While the story flows well and the dialogue is sharp, it's the highly stylized clothes and hair and sets that are the true centerpiece here. (Note to fans of Mad Men: Don't miss this movie version of the sophisticated style and relational mayhem of the 1960s, the kind you've come to know and love each Sunday night.)

The acting is pretty much as beautiful as the clothes. Mulligan is simply perfect as Jenny. It's almost eerie how this 22-year-old actress can pull off the emotional angst and relational naiveté of a 16-year-old. And how she can portray that 16-year-old looking like both a run-of-the-mill schoolgirl and a sophisticated socialite.

Alfred Molina as Jack

Sarsgaard is devilishly charming as David. His character is a careful blend of deception and joie de vivre. In lesser hands, he could have come across as either a monster or a pervert. It's a testament to Sarsgaard and a huge benefit to the film that he doesn't.

Molina also stands out as Jenny's dad, Jack. Though he's almost stereotypically driven and overbearing (Molina saves him from being a caricature), it just makes it all the more delightful to watch him melt at David's charm. And then grieve for his daughter's future.

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