An Education—Carey Mulligan, Peter Sarsgaard, Alfred Molina

(G) Carey Mulligan is nominated for an Oscar for her performance as Jenny, a seventeen-year old girl who comes of age in this quirky romance. Her performance is well-deserving of this nomination, as Mulligan’s is really the whole show here. The movie itself is lackluster in some ways, based in part I suspect on the fact that it is “based on the memoirs” of a real person. So often, unfortunately an attempt to stick too closely to the truth, ruins a good story. I would not be upset if Mulligan won the award for Best Actress.

(B) As in so many cases, “best actress” is ALL the actresses in a particular film. In other words, too many other components dictate whether the actress wins the award. For instance, the story, the role itself, the music, the direction or the supporting performances may play a part in the actor’s final result. In this movie Carey Milligan is worthy of best actress, regardless of whether these other components play a part (pardon pun).

Our joint rating for this film (as a whole) is two and three quarters binoculars.