An Education (2009)
Directed by Lone Scherfig
Despite her sheltered upbringing, Jenny is a teen with a bright future; she's smart, pretty, and has aspirations of attending Oxford University. When David, a charming but much older suitor, motors into her life in a shiny automobile, Jenny gets a taste of adult life that she won't soon forget.
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Hornby may have been pigeonholed as a writer who tells men's stories (or even the stories of boyish men) with High Fidelity and About a Boy, but his work here, building from the foundation of Barber's memoir, builds compelling, human characters regardless of gender or class or age; it's some of his finest work.
High Fidelity, arguably the best Hornby film, held out hope that he might still rescue himself on the strength of John Cusack, Stephen Frears, and the brotherhood of vinyl record geekdom.
When sitting down to watch a film penned by Nick Hornby (High Fidelity, About A Boy) you expect something lighthearted and emotional, with a bit of British humor.
Funnily enough, it's boys' own novelist Nick Hornby (High Fidelity) who adapted this story from the memoir by journalist Lynn Barber and, though liberties have been taken and names changed, he paints an accurate portrait of this precocious girl which remains just as smart.
The screenplay by Nick Hornby (" About a Boy " and " High Fidelity ") is based on a memoir by a real person, the British journalist Lynn Barber.
But then she meets sophisticated thirtysomething David (Peter Sarsgaard, "The Skeleton Key," "Orphan") driving his rare, maroon Bristol and his interest in her exposes her to everything from London clubs to dog tracks.
(Mulligan's biggest splashes were in supporting roles in the British television series "Doctor Who" and the 2005 adaptation of "Pride & Prejudice.")
¶ With just a few film roles behind her, including flighty Kitty Bennett in the Keira Knightley-starring "Pride & Prejudice," Mulligan seizes the character of 16-year-old Jenny in a once-in-a-lifetime way.
Her dazzlement and uncertain footing in these adult environs is deftly demonstrated in a remarkable supper club scene, where she’s the guest and curio of David, as well as his inscrutable friend Danny (Dominic Cooper) and Danny’s dimbulb girlfriend Helen (Mulligan’s Pride and Prejudice co-star Rosamund Pike, working hard to play dumb).
Your eyes are drawn to the deep dimple that, when she laughs, runs up her left cheek like a sweet scar; and your ears to her rich cello voice, so mature and supple an instrument for someone who's played girls on the cusp of womanhood since her movie debut as Keira Knightley's sister Kitty in the 2005 Pride and Prejudice.
Bright-eyed actor Mulligan (Pride & Prejudice, Public Enemies) lights up every scene she's in, followed closely by veteran changeling Sarsgaard in yet another of his shadowy roles, as a well-spoken, middle-class man with hidden reserves of untrustworthiness.
Other performances are on-point and effective, from Dominic Cooper (2008's " Mamma Mia! ") and Rosamund Pike (2009's " Surrogates ") as David's friends Danny and Helen, to Olivia Williams (2003's " Peter Pan ") as Miss Stubbs, to Alfred Molina (2008's " Nothing Like the Holidays ") as Jenny's caring, if misguided, father.