An Education

Set in a London suburb in the early 1960s, where a precocious 16-year-old with Oxford ambitions (Carey Mulligan, a star in the making) is waylaid by an alluring older man (Peter Sarsgaard) who introduces her to nightclubs, Paris and adult sexuality. Lone Scherfig (Italian for Beginners) directed from a script by Nick Hornby (High Fidelity); with Alfred Molina, Olivia Williams, Sally Hawkins and Emma Thompson.

An Oscar nominee for Best Picture, Actress and Adapted Screenplay.

A Golden Globe nominee for Best Actress - Drama.

A Spirit Award winner for Best Foreign Film.

“There are thrillers, and then there are thrillers. No shots are fired in "An Education," and the closest thing to a car chase is a bit of brisk driving after the theft of an old map. Yet this tale of an English schoolgirl's hard-won wisdom is thrilling all the same—for the radiance of Carey Mulligan's Jenny, who's wonderfully smart and perilously tender; for the grace of Lone Scherfig's direction, and the brilliance of Nick Hornby's screenplay, which took its inspiration, in the fullest sense of the word, from a short memoir by Lynn Barber. The film opens Friday in New York and Los Angeles; national release won't begin until Nov. 20. That's a classic distribution strategy to create pent-up demand, but I can't keep my admiration pent up for another six weeks. No movie I've seen in a very long time has touched me so deeply, or bestowed so much pleasure.” (Joe Morgenstern, Wall St. Journal)

“An Education captures the very limited possibilities for female liberation in early-'60s London -- with massive social change on the distant horizon, but not here yet -- in exquisite detail.” (Andrew O’Hehir, Salon)

“Playing a character who is herself a rare bloom in a field of mediocrity, Mulligan has a star quality they can't teach in acting school.” (Scott Foundas, Village Voice)

“Invariably funny and inexpressibly moving.” (Kenneth Turan, L.A. Times)

“A quiet miracle of a movie that quickly disabuses you of the idea that you've seen it all before.” (Peter Travers, Rolling Stone)