An education

Last night I saw "An Education". It was quite an education for me to watch the film. It delivered a story that avoided almost all cliches that must have been tempting for the director. This was a story that has been previously told--A relationship between an adolescent girl and her lover--a rogue of 30 something. What is it that keeps the film fresh? For one thing, the girl is not so naive as we would think. Although she has some difficulty in escaping without a pregnancy , her awareness of who he is and what he is "up to" is not lost to her. He is dishonest in as many ways as possible. He cheats on his wife and his work is absolutely dishonest. (If we could even call what he does work) Peter Saarsgard plays the seducer and he is so committed to the idea of seduction that it becomes his main MO. He seduces the girls entire family; Mom, Dad, the whole package. This helps the viewer watch the film with interest. This is not a story about lured sex between a minor and her lover. It is a seduction match. It takes some of the moral sting out of the story. The acting by the entire ensemble is brilliant. Alfred Molina as the family father is totally believable as a lower middle class man who will to anything for a larger status including selling his daughter. He is so good that you are left to wonder who is the real villain here? The seducer or the seduced? Saarsgard, for his part, is so low key that that he just creeps up on you and is constantly surprising the viewer with his ability to get the family to go along with whatever he wishes. The female members of the cast do very well with their parts. The girl is suitably coy and bright and possesses the hubris of an adolescent. The mother has little to say; but she does not have to say much given the position of wives in the early sixties. Emma Thompson has a small cameo role here and does fine with it.

I went to the film with a friend. She came up with a very interesting question. Why is David (Saarsgard) Jewish? That would make for an interesting discussion.