'It's not enough to educate us anymore, Mrs Walters! You've got to tell us why you're doing it!'
It appears that I got my Carey Mulligan filmography thoroughly mixed up: I watched Wall Street first, followed by the poignant film Never Let Me Go, where she fitted perfectly into the role of a displaced Cathy Glass and lastly, An Education. It turned out to be for the better; her first major role as the bright but sheltered 16-year-old schoolgirl swept away by a suave gentleman was one of the best I'd ever seen.
Captured in the sleepy and old-fashioned English suburb of Twickenham, the film explores the true importance of an academic education as compared to, as Peter Sarsgaard so charmingly puts it, an education in the 'University of Life'. Mulligan's rather anachronistic character of Jenny puts the thoughts of thousands of A-level students together on the screen flawlessly, and more importantly exposes the restrictive societal mindset held by the working-class in 1960s England.
However, what was most impressive was the way the movie ended. While some may find it extremely unsatisfying (and ultimately, a betrayal in morals to the first ninety percent of the film), I found that the ending expressed finding comfort and a satisfaction for the simpler things instead of settling for living in a fantasy. Ambition is all well and good, but in the end, you can never truly have a shortcut in life.
Gosh it feels like I'm writing a literature essay here. So trust me, it's a movie you can't miss. Although no one could ever replace Ms. Hepburn, I'm personally really glad that Carey Mulligan was casted as Eliza Doolittle in the My Fair Lady remake. Definitely something to look forward to!
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