tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8256060.post5259349853446192004..comments2024-03-17T10:11:46.952-04:00Comments on Film Experience Blog: An Education on the Ensemble ClassNATHANIEL Rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11597109147678235399noreply@blogger.comBlogger19125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8256060.post-43436759541125186922010-05-29T18:03:51.338-04:002010-05-29T18:03:51.338-04:00Olivia Williams deserved a nom.Olivia Williams deserved a nom.Joshnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8256060.post-75074760598269235912010-05-27T13:13:30.292-04:002010-05-27T13:13:30.292-04:00I love that you never forget, even if you are not ...I love that you never forget, even if you are not always on time.<br /><br />Nice piece and I especially like the last paragraph.<br /><br />By the way, I want to remind you of the last "say what" contest.James Thttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16055933146552583102noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8256060.post-19418550708915255572010-05-27T11:54:29.659-04:002010-05-27T11:54:29.659-04:00Loved AN EDUCATION!!! Carey Mulligan should have w...Loved AN EDUCATION!!! Carey Mulligan should have won the Oscar.JTnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8256060.post-1857999887007308882010-05-27T11:52:53.516-04:002010-05-27T11:52:53.516-04:00Nice review, though I think think I liked the film...Nice review, though I think think I liked the film a tad more than you did. I can see the need for Jenny to be more "complicated," or have a bit more thrown at her to grapple with. But at the same time, there would have been the easy complaints of Jenny acting too adult for her age if the film went too far in that direction. Some of that already surfaced prior when some critics said that Carey Mulligan looked too old to play a teenager, and I disagreed with that too. In the commentary track, Lone Scherfig gave the impression that she wanted to make the light and accessible film that she did. I didn't think she aimed for accessing her subject matter that deeply. She aimed for an impressionistic look at a budding and susceptible teenaged girl that took the wrong path and had to claw her way back to the right one.<br /><br />Also, I'm not sure what the continued fascination with Rosamund Pike's all about. She was okay and all, but her character wasn't anything exceptional or Oscar-worthy, and nothing that I'd want to pursue in a film of her own. I know that she's a great actress, and it's not easy at all to play the dumv blonde, but still. Now Sally Hawkins's character is a different story. A film about Sarah's long-running compliance and compromising in David's string of affairs while keeping her home life intact could have made a fascinating plot thread for a film of its own. I totally get the Mike Leigh vibe with that scene (wonder why? he he!). If Ms. Stubbs had been a bit more dynamic of a character, I wouldn't have minded seeing more of her in the film. Emma Thompson was great in her dressing downs of Jenny. She pierced to the heart of those scenes like nobody's business. <br /><br />Now I need to pop in this DVD and watch it all over again!Kyle M.noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8256060.post-16290740648753191912010-05-27T11:20:15.398-04:002010-05-27T11:20:15.398-04:00I never really quite understood people who thought...I never really quite understood people who thought Mulligan's was the best performance of the decade. <br /><br />Really? Didn't these people see Heath Ledger in Brokeback Moutain? AND in The Dark Knight? <br /><br />Helen Mirren in The Queen? Forrest Whitaker? Didn't they see The Lives of Others? Penelope in Volver? Capote? Milk? <br /><br />Javier Bardem in well.....anything? Bardem has a shapshifter-like quality to his acting, he really transforms himself completly, physically, from one character to another.<br /><br />In a wheelchair in Carne Tremula, fat, bold, pale and depressed in Los Lunes al Sol, cliched latin lover in Vicky Cristina (god, I hate that movie), The Sea Inside, Befor Night Falls....<br /><br />Was Carey's really the best??? People are so hysterical and over the top sometimes.<br /><br />Oh, and I think she looks like nothing like Audrey. Nobody does.aclphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11406220796611416156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8256060.post-31821783027987755072010-05-27T09:44:48.185-04:002010-05-27T09:44:48.185-04:00The more I remember this film, the less I like it ...The more I remember this film, the less I like it (pretty much like Lost series finale. I have to stop thinking about it otherwise I'll bring myself to hate it with a passion, forget about the good moments the show had and forever hate myself for wasting six years of my life with it)<br /><br />But back to subjetc: I never thought this movie was so brilliant and deep as others have. <br /><br />And Ishmael, I agree with you.Jenny never, once, came off as a sixteen year old girl. God, the pain and awkwardness of being a sixteen year old girl. Being in my late twenties, I look back at being sixteen and now I have a good perspective on how silly, naive, raw, vulnerable I was, how little I knew, how immature and unprepared I was. <br /><br />Jenny doesnt. She never shows the insecurity, the vulnerability, the "not-knowing", the social awkwardness that most sixteen year olds have. I this has nothing to do with Carey Mulligan being six or seven years older than Jenny (Ellen Page was also six years older than Juno and that didn't bother me. Who is sixteen anyway? Not even Emma Watson is sixteen anymore).<br /><br />It had everything to do with the way she was written. And with the fact that the movie willingly chose to overlook her flaws and sweep it under the rug in order for us to sympathise with her. The movie was way too much in love with the character therefore traying to portray us as a poor little victim (which she was to a degree) but this is precisely the fact that makes it so difficult to do so- the movie is so in love with her that they show her as this "semi-godess" and not just an ordinary-though very clever and driven- lower-middle class english girl in the early sixties. <br /><br />The movie overlooks her flaws, her mistakes, the active part she had in the whole ordeal. And I didnt like the ending, that whole Oxford epilogue. I thought it didnt really add much and wasnt necessary.aclphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11406220796611416156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8256060.post-80124866968302126602010-05-27T00:43:22.678-04:002010-05-27T00:43:22.678-04:00I think this film is a bit more insightful than it...I think this film is a bit more insightful than it is often given credit for - there is tremendous emotional complexity in scenes such as the 'banana' one, the one where Jenny takes her top off for David, or the scene where she tries to leave them but David goads her back into the group, complexity that Scherfig wisely lets speak for itself.<br /><br />What you said about other films and other worlds being opened up with different characters is absolutely how I felt - esp. in the case of Williams, Pike and Hawkins. The most haunting moment of Pike's performance and arc came at the end when Jenny tells Helen and Danny about David's deceit. If I recall the exchange went something like:<br /><br />Helen: "Oh, don't worry! When I found out-"<br />Danny: "Shh."<br /><br />Helen comes and stands behind Danny as he continues to speak to Jenny, she looks at him lovingly but also with this air of mourning and regret. That 30 seconds in that scene open up Helen's entire world and show you that perhaps, she was once in Jenny's shoes - that she's the Jenny that wasn't able to escape so soon.Slaytonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03788927670985682471noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8256060.post-23213053073555018442010-05-26T23:46:39.401-04:002010-05-26T23:46:39.401-04:00I don't think it's just a brit thing to fe...I don't think it's just a brit thing to feel this was a mediocrity. I reckon I'm the odd-man out but none of the characters captivated me-- they (and the film) lacked sufficient verve and zest. Well, except perhaps the set and costume design. Not so much that I appreciated them much-- I have no sense of fashion, I was just bored enough by the characters that I kept probing the rooms. <br /><br />Emma Thompson came the closest to holding my attention with her understatedly steadfast morality (I kept expecting her to flex her ham-chops and was always pleasantly surprised when she didn't) and so almost did Hawkins. They may have succeeded if the script had veered more subtly towards them (to borrow Nathaniel's use of the Leigh lens).<br /><br />Or I wish they had shown more of Danny & Helen, perhaps deftly shifting perspective their way from Jenny's. It could have been much more interesting looking over their shoulders as both Jenny and Jack become smitten. <br /><br />Indeed I'd prefer watching any of Nathaniel's alternatives.<br /><br />It just seemed to work much too hard to delicately-place-Mulligan-on-yon-pedestal-only-to-snatch-the-rug-from-under-it. But maybe it was trying to EVOKE a 60's retro rather than EXTENDING one.<br /><br />Throughout Saargard felt like a mediocre Peter Pan to me, so during the bleak reveal I just sort of smirked at the predictable comeuppance. For me, it might have been a better move if it had just ended there. Very likely my guilt would have rescinded my schadenfreude. Especially since I had just suffered through Mona Lisa Smile's Hollywood ending. <br /><br />Since I was an 8-year-old misogynist with a crush on Audrey Hepburn, I've loved undergoing the transformation from hating the ingenue's guts to loving her to pieces. Recalling An Education makes me crave Happy-Go-Lucky or Amelie or some Merchant Ivory drivel. I need a leading lady to remove this lump from my heart.vernininohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11743454074504116461noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8256060.post-19813571892006140532010-05-26T22:11:39.185-04:002010-05-26T22:11:39.185-04:00I just watched this again last night, timely coinc...I just watched this again last night, timely coincidence. From a storytelling standpoint it's not perfect (the purpose of the car scene with David, Jenny and her folks was pivotal yet completely glossed over in buildup and that montage of how Jenny continues her education in the end always felt like the director gave up and the screenwriter didn't want us to see the protagonist earn her happy ending by struggling for it) and the editing is seriously haphazard and inconsistent. And yet, it's still a movie that I can keep going back to over and over again as well as a movie that I enjoy sharing the experience of viewing with others.<br /><br />I actually dumped Julie Christie in Billy Liar for Carey Mulligan in An Education as my on-screen girlfriend. Haha.<br /><br />On and another movie prospect I think you missed out on is "What if Jenny Had Stayed?" when Sally Hawkins tells her to "no, you stay here" instead of walking away.<br /><br />Truly a movie whose universe I wouldn't mind having more of.<br /><br />Bookmarking this. :)The Jaded Armchair Reviewerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05511211427198395696noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8256060.post-39787532968968609242010-05-26T19:24:45.838-04:002010-05-26T19:24:45.838-04:00I pretty much fell in love with both character and...I pretty much fell in love with both character and actress during the course of this movie. It's an amazing performance, as was Pike's. I don't understand the love I've seen for Molina, as he's in a very typical role, but I suppose there aren't many ways youd could play it. I still can't quite decide exactly what it was about the characters. I wanted Jenny to stay with David, despite the obvious flaws with that idea.<br /><br />In a way, it reminds me of Punch-Drunk Love in the way I instantly fell for both of the leads and wanted them to stay together despite Barry's flaws in that movie. I think it's what you said about the movie zipping along. I usually love it when films do that. It makes a nice contrast to all the slow, heavy films we tend to see these days.Matnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8256060.post-59179943944173435752010-05-26T18:44:30.942-04:002010-05-26T18:44:30.942-04:00I don't think Scherfig is to blame for the fil...I don't think Scherfig is to blame for the film's obsession with Mulligan. I mean, Hornsby barely gave Mulligan anything to work with (yes, I'd stand by that), and the supporting roles are utterly devoid of any character whatsoever. However all these actors, (Mulligan, Pike, Sarsgaard, Williams, and the argument can be made for Molina, Seymour, and Thompson as well... heck even Cooper, Bear, and Hawkins) are able to craft rich, layered characters out of nothing.<br /><br />Talented as these actors are, when everyone in a film like this is so good, especially when the roles as written aren't a fraction of what ends up on the screen, I feel like credit has to be given to the director. I never thought Scherfig was obsessed with Mulligan at all, rather I felt like she was working closely with all the actors, resisting a script that seemed to be pushing her to do the opposite.Danielnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8256060.post-19875213024298788912010-05-26T18:40:50.892-04:002010-05-26T18:40:50.892-04:00Seeing that this is my favourite film of the last ...Seeing that this is my favourite film of the last year I'm good and biased, but I'm glad to see other things getting attention (personally LOVED Duffy's "Smoke Without A Fire" even if it was a little TOO on the nose). Matthew Bear's Graham was so sympathetic, and I love that bit of conversation you use at the end there. Two things I love, how misguided Mr. Mellor is and Carey's reactions, she's just so expressive with her face.<br /> <br />In reference to the scene you mention in the comments about Jenny ignoring that her boyfriend's a thief, I'm a little on your side but the reason I believe it is because I know that Jenny doesn't believe it either...but as Sarsgaard says <i>"there would be no fun"</i>, and she likes fun.<br /><br />Excellent writeup.Andrew K.https://www.blogger.com/profile/01104647944747041277noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8256060.post-53349745185811002872010-05-26T18:00:52.875-04:002010-05-26T18:00:52.875-04:00The biggest problem I had with this film was that ...The biggest problem I had with this film was that Jenny never for one second comes across as a 16 year old schoolgirl. She clearly a woman in her 20s throughout.<br />And this makes it impossible for me to sympathise with her - something the film clearly wants me to do.<br /><br />But yes, the supporting cast is quite decent. Horrendously overrated film in general, though.Ishmaelnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8256060.post-68220524466266049812010-05-26T17:57:23.744-04:002010-05-26T17:57:23.744-04:00@ Burning Reels - it must be a Brit thing, the mov...@ Burning Reels - it must be a Brit thing, the movie evoked more of a meh response from me. Anyway Pike was my revelation and my fave in that movie.Nelnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8256060.post-28708914130121334622010-05-26T17:52:15.874-04:002010-05-26T17:52:15.874-04:00It was my favourite 2009 film. I know it's not...It was my favourite 2009 film. I know it's not perfect and that last year came up with more important movies, but I just can't help falling in love with the characaters/performances, mood and visuals Lone Scherfig developed. And I just keep teeling myslef the end is on par with the rest of the film: Jenny can't accept that a big mistake will define her future: she just keep her head above those "minor incidents".Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8256060.post-78374300410203455472010-05-26T17:47:44.151-04:002010-05-26T17:47:44.151-04:00From a Brits (not sure if that makes much differen...From a Brits (not sure if that makes much difference or not) point of view, I was very disappointed by the film.<br /><br />Disjointed, horrible score and meek script.<br /><br />Thankfully Mulligan, Molina and Hawkins made it watchable and entertaining in parts.<br /><br />Comparisons to Julie Christie's Darling are ludicrous - p*sses all over this average fare.<br /><br />I'll shush now:)Burning Reelshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09240650652319642523noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8256060.post-12757572713807365072010-05-26T16:48:49.942-04:002010-05-26T16:48:49.942-04:00adelutza -- for me that's every scene that use...adelutza -- for me that's every scene that uses the foursome i mentioned. they really have amazing chemistry and it's in theses scenes where Scherfig seems to have the most distance or control of the tone. Or maybe i just think they made some off choices with the parents.<br /><br />cal -- i'm not saying it's too much. i think she's terrific in the film. But it does feel like the director held back from criticizing the character. anyway... there is one scene that i don't quite think Mulligan pulls over. It's her switcheroo once she decides to ignore that her boyfriend is a criminal. I wanted to love that scene. love the lead up to it and almost every performance bit of hers but that scene. it just doesn't quite convince me.NATHANIEL Rhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11597109147678235399noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8256060.post-1151848252533977732010-05-26T16:36:25.305-04:002010-05-26T16:36:25.305-04:00I don't know why I love this film so much. Whe...I don't know why I love this film so much. When you hold a magnifier and look closely, you discover holes. But there are scenes in it that are pure delight and I could watch them over and over again.adelutzahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01500491363721543846noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8256060.post-9153720940369536092010-05-26T16:31:00.790-04:002010-05-26T16:31:00.790-04:00I've been very vocal about the amazement I had...I've been very vocal about the amazement I had while seeing this performance, but, come on, it's never too much: I Love Her, I Love Her and I Love Her. And it's not a case of likable character, because Jenny can be very annoying. It's a case of a marvelous performance, a debut for the ages.cal rothnoreply@blogger.com