The plot of
An Education sounds like it is just a remake of
Lolita but it is actually based on the
true story of a high school girl (Carey Mulligan) growing up in England in the 1960's who is seduced by a con artist (Peter Sarsgaard) in his early thirties who is passing himself off as an art dealer. He and another couple (Dominic Cooper & Rosamund Pike) live high off the hog while leading a life of crime. Sarsgaard meets Mulligan by chance and is soon seducing not just her, but her parents (Alfred Molina & Cara Seymour) as well. The
naiveté of the family is such that Mulligan's father, who originally doesn't even want her to date another high school boy for fear of hurting her chances of getting into university, urges her to go away for a weekend with Saarsgard. Mulligan is in cahoots with him because she has fallen for him hard and she is scamming her parents without realizing that Saarsgard is doing the same to her.
Mulligan, who was Kitty in the Keira Knightly
Pride and Prejudice is perfect as the 16 year old (she is actually 24) who wants her life to begin now.
An Education is her movie and she carries it off very nicely. Peter Sarsgaard (
Rendition) is always very good and he is very believable as the smarmy con artist. I really like Dominic Cooper (
The History Boys) who plays Saarsgard's sidekick with panache and Rosamund Pike who was Jane in the Keira Knightly
Pride and Prejudice is good as his blonde bimbo girlfriend. Alfred Molina who plays the father gets to speak in something like his real accent here. In most of his movies (
Frida,
Spider-Man 2,
The Da Vinci Code), he is not even British. He is a classic British character actor and is fantastic at whatever role he plays. Emma Thompson also shows that all British actors are character actors at their core. She does a nice turn in
An Education as the dowdy, hard, bitter, principal at Mulligan's school who considers her to be damaged goods. Olivia Williams (
Rushmore,
The Sixth Sense) has a nice but small part as the teacher who turns out to be the opposite of Thompson.
The direction and the art direction in
An Education are really fab. The setting of the film in 1960's middle class England looks perfect. The story moves right along and
An Education feels like it has a lot of action for a film that is mostly just people talking. The thing that makes this story more interesting than just Lolita is the involvement of Mulligan's parents in the seduction and how they are totally taken in by. There are still some very Lolita-esque parts of
An Education so it does have its creepy aspects. The film is just very well done with a bunch of great British actors so it is a joy to watch them in action. And Mulligan shows that she belongs with the likes Thompson and Molina.
The plot of An Education sounds like it is just a remake of Lolita but it is actually based on the true story of a high school girl (Carey Mulligan) growing up in England in the 1960's who is seduced by a con artist (Peter Sarsgaard) in his early thirties who is passing himself off as an art dealer. He and another couple (Dominic Cooper & Rosamund Pike) live high off the hog while leading a life of crime. Sarsgaard meets Mulligan by chance and is soon seducing not just her, but her parents (Alfred Molina & Cara Seymour) as well. The naiveté of the family is such that Mulligan's father, who originally doesn't even want her to date another high school boy for fear of hurting her chances of getting into university, urges her to go away for a weekend with Saarsgard. Mulligan is in cahoots with him because she has fallen for him hard and she is scamming her parents without realizing that Saarsgard is doing the same to her. 
Mulligan, who was Kitty in the Keira Knightly Pride and Prejudice is perfect as the 16 year old (she is actually 24) who wants her life to begin now. An Education is her movie and she carries it off very nicely. Peter Sarsgaard (Rendition) is always very good and he is very believable as the smarmy con artist. I really like Dominic Cooper (The History Boys) who plays Saarsgard's sidekick with panache and Rosamund Pike who was Jane in the Keira Knightly Pride and Prejudice is good as his blonde bimbo girlfriend. Alfred Molina who plays the father gets to speak in something like his real accent here. In most of his movies (Frida, Spider-Man 2, The Da Vinci Code), he is not even British. He is a classic British character actor and is fantastic at whatever role he plays. Emma Thompson also shows that all British actors are character actors at their core. She does a nice turn in An Education as the dowdy, hard, bitter, principal at Mulligan's school who considers her to be damaged goods. Olivia Williams (Rushmore, The Sixth Sense) has a nice but small part as the teacher who turns out to be the opposite of Thompson.
The direction and the art direction in An Education are really fab. The setting of the film in 1960's middle class England looks perfect. The story moves right along and An Education feels like it has a lot of action for a film that is mostly just people talking. The thing that makes this story more interesting than just Lolita is the involvement of Mulligan's parents in the seduction and how they are totally taken in by. There are still some very Lolita-esque parts of An Education so it does have its creepy aspects. The film is just very well done with a bunch of great British actors so it is a joy to watch them in action. And Mulligan shows that she belongs with the likes Thompson and Molina. 
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