An Education Review

Danish director Lone Scherfig made one of the most cherishable films of the noughties. As you might guess from the title, 2002's Wilbur Wants To Kill Himself was anything but your average rom-com. But despite the constant presence of depression and suicide, the film that should have made Jamie Sives a star managed to be as warm and welcoming as a log fire.

Seven years on, and with the decade drawing to the close, Scherfig finds herself in more traditional territory, shooting an adaptation of a hit book. And if that wasn't mainstream enough, said tome was retooled for the big screen by literary light-heavyweight Nick Hornby. Throw in award-winning stars like Emma Thompson and highly thought of actors such as Peter Sarsgaard and Alfred Molina, and you could be forgiven for thinking this Great Danes gone Hollywood.

It's actually more accurate to say that Scherfig's gone Cricklewood since it's to the London suburbs (Twickenham to be precise) that her attention has now turned. And while An Education might seem more polite and sedate than her earlier movies, these apparent concessions don't impede the picture. Indeed, while you'd hesitate to call it edgy, it'll be a strange person who doesn't find An Education entertaining, and a stranger man still who denies it the success it's sure to enjoy.

Lynn (Carey Mulligan, effortlessly transforming for twentysomething to teen) is a bright sixteen-year-old, all set for Oxford. The only obstacles on her road to higher education are her poor grasp of Latin and her burgeoning relationship with David (Peter Sarsgaard), a dashing salesman keen to whisk Lynn away from her drab world of cello lessons and double French. But what do Lynn's parents make of a (much) older man squiring their only child? Not much as it happens since Jack and Marjorie (Alfred Molina and Cara Seymour) are adorably naive and David is utterly charming.