A Learning Experience

So, I didn't mention anything earlier this week about the Oscar nominations coming out but... hey, the Oscar nominations came out. In the super-sized Best Picture category, I had seen six of the ten nominees. (This includes the should win but sadly won't win Up.) As of tonight, that number goes up to seven, because I went to see An Education.

This is considered one of the films that doesn't stand a chance, a movie that only got in because there were five extra nominees this year. And having seen it, I have to agree with that assessment. But it isn't a bad movie.

Set in Britain in the early 1960s, the story surrounds a sixteen-year old girl who falls into a romantic relationship with a charming and cultured older man who shows her a world more fun and exciting than the stuffy books her parents make her study so that she might attend Oxford. The rather straight-forward story takes a turn in the final act that brings the film a cut above standard fare, but the script really isn't the main strength of the movie.

No, that would be the acting. Much praise is being heaped upon the young newcomer who plays the girl, Carey Mulligan, but personally I don't quite see the fuss. She does well enough, but hers is not a very demanding role. She's simply the girl being swept off her feet.

The heavy lifting, in my view, is done by Peter Sarsgaard as the older man. He has to be the most perfectly charming man you've ever seen for this story to work. He has to charm the very intelligent girl. He has to charm the incredibly stern father of the girl. He has to charm the audience enough to never become too conscious of the fact that he's too old for this girl. And he does it all perfectly.

In any case, it's an actors' movie. Whether you choose to applaud Mulligan or Sarsgaard -- or some of the smaller roles played by Alfred Molina (the girl's father), Emma Thompson (principle of her school), or Olivia Williams (her concerned teacher) -- the performances are the backbone of the movie.

I personally wouldn't have considered this worthy of a Best Picture nod. Still, plenty of less-deserving films have received them -- and even won the award itself. I rate An Education a B-.