I just finished watching An Education, part of my must-see movie list that I just hadn’t gotten around to watching after Carey Mulligan’s Oscar nomination sparked my interest. And oh, how I loved it so! Carey Mulligan plays Jenny, this fresh-faced and naive, teenage school-girl growing up in early 1960s London. I heard a rumour that they were planning on remaking the classic My Fair Lady and Carey Mulligan was favoured to get the role, and I remember saying What? Why and how could they give such an important role to someone like her – but, now I know why. I so wanted to be her, going to all the jazz clubs and dog races, frolicking around Paris and Oxford with her beau. Every girl wants to be swept off her feet like a fairy tale but as we are educated in the film, life’s not a fairy tale, and the harsh reality of her childish choices eventually set in. Of course, the fashions were delightful, but most of all, it was the writing and story that kept me involved in Jenny’s life. Carey Mulligan’s monologues were compelling and wonderfully delivered- especially where she questions her headmistress, very unlike the ladies of her time, about why it’s so important for her to get a degree when she will end up a married housewife or schoolteacher anyway. I just read too, that Nick Hornby wrote the screenplay, the same guy who wrote High Fidelity - no wonder I fell into it so easily. At one point, Jenny says, "Action is character. If we never did anything, we wouldn't be anybody." I loved that - it made me want to jump on a plane and get out of the boundaries of my existence. You can’t go wrong with a BBC-backed film, (just like Pride and Prejudice!) and, unfortunately for those of you I talk to on a regular basis, I’ll probably be speaking in a British accent now for about a week.
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