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First love: Never as smooth as you think it will be |
Director: Lone Scherfig
Cast: Carey Mulligan (Jenny Mellor), Peter Sarsgaard (David
Goldman), Dominic Cooper (Danny), Rosamund Pike (Helen), Alfred Molina (Jack
Mellor), Cara Seymour (Marjorie Mellor), Emma Thompson (Miss Walters), Olivia
Williams (Miss Stubbs), Sally Hawkins (Sarah), Ellie Kendrick (Tina)
The education in question is the first sexual relationship
of a girl who is 16 going on 17. Jenny (Carey Mulligan) is a schoolgirl and
prospective Oxford candidate who finds herself winning the attention of
charming older man David (Peter Sarsgaard). Jenny is swept off her feet by the
world of classy bars, art and culture David introduces her to and begins to
lose interest in her literal education: if all education can do is turn women
into either lawyers’ wives or teachers what is the point?
Strangely for a film based on a man approaching middle-age
taking advantage of a naïve and excited teenager, it’s strangely cosy and
charming, with the whiff of “safe” family viewing. Nothing wrong with that of
course, but the whole confection is just a little too slight, a little too well
packaged, a little too carefully and thoughtfully put together to really leave
a lasting impression. Instead it’s an enjoyable enough 90 minutes which doesn’t
really have anything that stays with you.
What it does have going for it above all is the marvellous
lead performance from Carey Mulligan. At the time best known for appearing in
the Blink episode of Doctor Who, Mulligan cements her early
promise by demonstrating what a charismatic and vibrant performer she is. Jenny
delights in the ease with which David deceives everyone without it ever
occurring to her that he might be lying to her, and this teenage arrogance
could easily be smackably annoying – but Mulligan makes her deeply engaging and
loveable. You want to protect her from making an irrevocable decision that will
ruin her life at 16 (sort of the opposite to Bella in Twilight). But Mulligan’s endearingly engaging performance sweeps
the audience up into Jenny’s fascination with the exciting life David seems to
be offering, and makes you understand why she believes it to be a viable
option. She’s a radiant centre to the film and it’s almost impossible to
imagine it working at all without her.
It is in fact very well-acted throughout. Sarsgaard
underplays the role, suggesting the underlying shallowness and weakness to
David which is far clearer to the audience than the characters. The supporting
cast are knock-outs: Rosamund Pike is hilarious as a sweet airhead, Alfred
Molina embodies the gullibility of the striving middle-classes mixed with great
reserves of unspoken love and affection, Olivia Williams is terrific in an
underwritten part as Jenny’s concerned teacher.
It’s strange watching the film to see how it romanticizes
the sort of behaviour that, if we encountered it today, would be denounced as
grooming at best, paedophilia at worst. In fact, the film soft-peddles a lot of
the unpleasantness of its characters: David and Danny, it is clear, are conmen
and swindlers, though I suspect the film wants us to think of them more as
charming rogues. I suppose it’s the impact of seeing the story from Jenny’s perspective,
but some more outside commentary would perhaps have been interesting: it also might
have been more interesting to see Jenny actually having to deal with the moral
consequences of some of the actions that happen around her.
This is a slight affair, almost a shaggy dog story. There
are many more things it could have explored (the swindling career of David, the
role of women in the 1960s, the changing perceptions of “blue stockings” and
their career options) but instead it settles for being a charming period piece.
It makes no secret of the fact that, deep down, we are not meant to trust David
and nothing in the plot ever really surprises you. It’s a gentle amble through
an ill-advised teenage romance. But, despite all that, it’s very well acted and
Carey Mulligan proves she was set to become a star.
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