Indie Review: An Education (7.5/10) - 2009: English Accents That Are Simply Eargasmic

Through the Bournemouth Skillset & Media Academy (BSMA), I was given the opportunity to attend the The Sony Ericsson Film Lovers' Forum at the BAFTA's this year. Without having the opportunity to have heard of and/or seen the numerous films that were nominated for the awards, this would provide me with an enjoyable list of films to watch and learn from. This particular film did fairly well for nominations and wins.


This particular film saw the lovely Carey Mulligan win the BAFTA for Leading Actress and then come backstage to talk to the fans in the forum. At that point in time I unfortunately could not relate to all of the hype surrounding her performance other than by word-of-mouth as I had not watched the film. She seemed like a genuinely lovely person. (For more information on my time at the BAFTA's, click here).

This film was nominated for 3 Oscars, won one and nominated for seven BAFTA's, as well as winning the British Independent Film Award, among a total of 18 wins and 45 nominations.

Lone Scherfig was BAFTA Nominated for Director; Finola Dwyer and Amanda Posey were Nominated for Best Film; Finola Dwyer, Amanda Posey, Lone Scherfig and Nick Hornby were Nominated for Outstanding British Film; Nick Hornby was Nominated for Adapted Screenplay; Alfred Molina was nominated for Best Supporting Actor; Odile Dicks-Mireaux was Nominated for Costume Design; and last but not least, Lizzie Yianni Georgiou was Nominated for Make Up & Hair.

"An Education" (shot for BBC Films in Ealing Studios in the UK), is set in the early 1960's, where middle-class, intelligent and humorous 16 year old Jenny Mellor (Carey Mulligan) lives with her parents in Twickenham, London. Jenny's sole mission, as spurred on by her father (Alfred Molina), is to pass her A-Levels and receive the grades she needs to get into Oxford University; a dream he shares with her. Her life is ready to take a phenomenal twist as she meets David Goldman (Oeter Sarsgaard), a suave and sophisticated Jewish businessman over twice her age. The film concentrates on his intelligently calculated tact to integrate himself into Jenny and her family's lives. As Jenny increasingly gets to know David, she must make the hardest decision of her life; whether to live the life she could only dream of, or continue her journey to get into the University she had worked so hard to attend.

Click below to watch the film's official trailer:



I am not going to lie, but I was quite uncomfortable throughout the film, not too dissimilar to how I felt watching Stanley Kubrick's Lolita. The creative team were initially worried about casting the 22 year old Carey Mulligan in the role of a 16 year old, but were convinced by her screen test. This realism was put to the test where a number of scenes left me feeling rather uneasy. Whether or not this was the intention of the director, personally I found it quite effective. I recognise that the era of the 60's was completely different to nowadays, however I do find that Jenny Mellor's (Mulligan) father should have prevented any form of contact between his daughter and a male of his age. Perhaps it is my generation that has grown up to avoid strangers when younger, and it would take someone born in that era to fully explain if that was the norm, but as mentioned, it is not something I condone in the slightest.

I felt that the cast was picked superbly well by Lucy Bevan, with Carey Mulligan, Alfred Molina and Peter Sarsgaard all contributing phenomenally powerful and commendable performances. You may have read my previous post concerning Sandra Bullock's Oscar winning performance in The Blind Side, however I believe that Mulligan's performance was overlooked almost entirely. You felt the naivety, the joy, the sorrow, and the development of the character as the film unfolded and developed. This can be said of Bullock's performance, but not on the same scale as Mulligan and I feel that she might be very hard done by not to have won an Oscar she actually deserved.

Alfred Molina, rightly deserved a nomination for his acting as his performance was impecible. Peter Sarsgaard potentially also deserved a mention for his role as the sophisticated, suave businessman. Without giving anything away, his realistic movements, dialogue and gestures indicated his every intention to the audience. I can quite rightly state that my general unease throughout the film can be put down to the combination of his performance, tied in with the superbly portrayed protagonist, Jenny.

It may sound odd, but the impeccably articulate use of grammar and accents was a major highlight for me personally. With no disrespect intended, British films constantly use lower class accents and scenarios as the forefront of their films in modern times (unless they are period pieces of course), resorting to violence and anger as a solution for every problem. This (upper) middle-class film was a refreshing indicator that these classes also have a place in modern British cinema outside Victorian era, a praiseworthy mention that can rest with director Lone Scherfig. She says that she experimented with giving the actors options during scenes. For example, she told Peter Sarsgaard that "if he felt like it, he could start a conversation with an extra playing a doorman in one scene despite there not being any written dialogue" (IMDB). This is a style that I also like to experiment with on my sets, and I feel that it relaxes the actor to produce brilliant results.

I feel that I must commend An Education; a film that does not contain seismic twists and turns, climaxes or shocks, or any noticeable action, plodding along at a steady pace; a film that somehow captivates and grasps the attention of its audience from start to finish.

I have rated this 100 minute long film 7.5/10 due to the aforementioned lack of pace as this is not a film that I would have gone out of my way to watch at the cinema, or even purchase. It is a film that I may have casually switched channels and noticed that it was on Film 4 a few years from now. I believe that the power of the BAFTA's is lost in translation with the majority of the public, and all I can say is that I'm glad that I managed to (almost force) myself to watch this excellent, British film, and that Mulligan's future is bright (no BAFTA-sponsored Orange pun intended).

Review: The Blind Side (7/10) - 2009: A True Story About Compassion, Values And A Little Bit Of American Football

There seems to be an unusual running trend for me writing praise for Sandra Bullock in recent times. She is someone who I openly criticised as a wooden, talentless individual (but nowhere NEAR as bad as Julia Roberts obviously). Her movie career spawned (in my opinion) abysmal films such as Miss Congeniality, Two Weeks Notice, and a list of films I don't think I've ever heard of according to IMDB (do they even exist?!).

Sandra Bullock however, is also someone who gracefully turned up at the Golden Raspberry Awards to pick up the worst actress prize for "All About Steve" (A film she co-produced), and as a goodwill gesture, arrived with a trailer filled with DVDs of the film to give to the audience.

"Something tells me you all didn't watch the film because I wouldn't be here if you really, really watched it and understood what I was trying to say," she said. As she handed out the DVD's to the cheering crowd, she went on to say; "I will show up next year if you promise to watch the movie and really consider if it was truly the worst performance. If you're willing to watch, I'll come back next year and give back the Razzie." (Click here to read more).

This was just one day before she was expected to win an Oscar for The Blind Side...which she did, and up against stiff competition in Carey Mulligan's performance in "An Education", not to mention the everlasting Meryl Streep in Julie & Julia; the "Queen" Helen Mirren in The Last Station; and the undiscovered Gabourey Sidibe in Precious. (Click here for more information on the Oscar winners).

"The Blind Side" depicts the true story of Michael "Big Mike" Oher (Quinton Aaron), a quiet, homeless teenage African-American youngster who hails from a broken home in a rough neighbourhood. Michael does not know who his father is and his mother is a drug addict of whom the State has previously taken custody of her other children. Michael has had little formal education and very few skills or motivation to help him learn, due to the societal dangers area of his upbringing.

Leigh Anne (Sandra Bullock) and Sean Tuohy (Tim McGraw), a well-to-do white family take him in as part of their family due to his unfortunate circumstances, with Michael's presence in the family's lives leading them to some insightful self-discoveries of their own. Living in his new environment, Michael faces a completely different set of challenges to overcome, both academically and physically, accidentally getting involved with American Football due to his natural, raw talent. Working hard to protect his family and with the help of his coaches and new environment, an All-American legend was born.

Click below watch the film's official trailer:



For those of you out there who think that this will be a sports film would be wrong as, in my opinion, it lacks the gritty action that would pick up the tempo of the film. I found myself becoming increasingly interested and excited as soon as there was a sports scene (but then again, I do enjoy sports). This film is more about the emotional attachment between Michael and Leigh Anne, and how they in turn, helped each other.

Once again, as with "The Proposal", I find myself complimenting Bullock's talented performance as both a tough business woman, and emotional mother figure. Quinton Aaron didn't particularly have many lines to learn for this film and his expression remained the same throughout the film, however it was very convincing in the sense that Michael was a quiet individual who did what he was told, and this came across very well. Tim McGraw's performance as the doting husband was very believable and SJ Tuohy (Jae Head), the younger son of Leigh Anne and Sean Tuohy, was a fairly convincing performance from this youngster. Collins Tuohy (Lily Collins), SJ's older sister, also put on a very good performance. One criticism can be made of Adriane Lenox, who played Michael's drug-addicted mother, as she did not act or give the impression that she was constantly under the influence. This can also be attributed to a fairly clean interior house set for a "junkie," and a lack of make-up.

Nevertheless, I have rated this heartwarming 129 minute-long film 7/10 and it is one that I definitely recommend that you go and watch. I believe that it required some more action, however the remaining aspects of the film were exceptional. A special mention needs to be made to the casting director (Ronna Kress), who picked a very similar cast aesthetically to the original individuals.