Carey as: Jenny

Jenny is the central character in An Education, a bright and singular girl with dreams of the sophisticated life that she knows awaits her once she gets beyond her parents straitlaced home and the prim girl’s academy she attends. A chance meeting with an older man offers her a shortcut to the life she imagines, but her eagerness blinds her to the larger picture of what is really going on. The film retains its’ innocence by being set in 1961, and the advances of the smooth talking David seem tantalizing rather than the predatory reality they are. If the film were set in present day, his character would end up in prison. But Jenny survives and grows through the experience.

Film info:

Release Date: 18 January 2009
Gerne: Drama
Awards: Nominated for 3 Oscars. Another 18 wins & 45 nominations

Plot: In the early 1960′s, sixteen year old Jenny Mellor lives with her parents in the London suburb of Twickenham. On her father’s wishes, everything that Jenny does is in the sole pursuit of being accepted into Oxford, as he wants her to have a better life than he. Jenny is bright, pretty, hard working but also naturally gifted. The only problems her father may perceive in her life is her issue with learning Latin, and her dating a boy named Graham, who is nice but socially awkward. Jenny’s life changes after she meets David Goldman, a man over twice her age. David goes out of his way to show Jenny and her family that his interest in her is not improper and that he wants solely to expose her to cultural activities which she enjoys. Jenny quickly gets accustomed to the life to which David and his constant companions, Danny and Helen, have shown her, and Jenny and David’s relationship does move into becoming a romantic one. However, Jenny slowly learns more about David, and by association Danny and Helen, and specifically how they make their money. Jenny has to decide if what she learns about them and leading such a life is worth forgoing her plans of higher eduction at Oxford.

Crew:

Director: Lone Scherfig
Writter: Lynn Barber (memoir), Nick Hornby (screenplay)
Co-Stars: Olivia Williams, Alfred Molina, Peter Sarsgaard, Dominic Cooper, Rosamund Pike

Trivia:

- Carey Mulligan mentioned in an interview at the Sundance Film Festival that some of the most enjoyable moments of filming where when there were actors who only came in for a day or so, like Sally Hawkins and Emma Thompson, and she particularly enjoyed the four scenes she shot with the latter, whom she described as being “amazing”, and called her acting “brilliant”.

- 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. Rosamund Pike reportedly really wanted the small part of Helen, because “no one ever lets me be funny”.

- This film marks the first time in his 15 year career that Peter Sarsgaard received top billing. He has been attached to this film for a number of years.

Quotes:

[from trailer]
Miss Stubbs: You seem to be old and wise.
Jenny: I feel old. But not very wise.

[last lines]
Jenny: One of the boys I dated, and they were boys, suggested that we go to Paris and I said I’d always wanted to see Paris. As if I’d never been!

David: Do you go to concerts?
Jenny: No. We don’t believe in concerts.
David: Oh, I assure you, they’re real.

Jenny: If people die the moment that they graduate, then surely it’s the things we do beforehand that count.

Jenny: I don’t want to lose my virginity to a piece of fruit.

Jenny: If you never do anything, you never become anyone.

Jenny: [Jenny's thoughts on sex ] It’s funny though, isn’t it? All that poetry and all those songs, about something that lasts no time at all.

Headmistress: Nobody does anything worth doing without a degree.
Jenny: Nobody does anything worth doing WITH a degree. No woman anyway.
Headmistress: So what I do isn’t worth doing? Or what Miss Stubbs does, or Mrs. Wilson, or any of us here? Because none of us would be here without a degree. You do realize that, don’t you? And yes, of course studying is hard and boring…
Jenny: Boring!
Headmistress: I’m sorry?
Jenny: Studying is hard and boring. Teaching is hard and boring. So, what you’re telling me is to be bored, and then bored, and finally bored again, but this time for the rest of my life? This whole stupid country is bored! There’s no life in it, or color, or fun! It’s probably just as well the Russians are going to drop a nuclear bomb on us any day now. So my choice is to do something hard and boring, or to marry my… Jew, and go to Paris and Rome and listen to jazz, and read, and eat good food in nice restaurants, and have fun! It’s not enough to educate us anymore Ms. Walters. You’ve got to tell us why you’re doing it.

Jenny: [Reading from envelopes she found in David's car] Mr. and Mrs. David Goldman. Mr. and Mrs. David Goldman. Mr. and Mrs. David- you’re married!
David: Legally yes, but…
Jenny: When were you going to tell me?
David: Soon, it just never seemed like the right time. You seemed so happy, and I was happy…
Jenny: You were living with your wife all this time, around the corner! Byron Avenue. It’s no wonder we kept bumping into each other, is it? What number?
David: 34. Don’t be like this, come on.
Jenny: I have nothing. I didn’t take my exams. I… I left school. Where’s it all gone now?

Jack: We have to have this out. Well, if you won’t do it, I will. I’m still your father.
Jenny: You’re my father again now, are you? And what were you when you encouraged me to throw my life away? Silly schoolgirls are always getting seduced by glamorous older men, but what about you two?