Mulligan is the new Audrey Hepburn

Carey Mulligan’s inherently charming performance in “An Education” is not the only thing working in its favor. Lone Scherfig’s film transcends Oscar-bait, becoming a wholly original work of art.

Despite living a busy schoolgirl lifestyle on her road to Oxford, we find Jenny (Mulligan) quite bored with her life in London.

What develops is a film that seeks to define happiness and how a person approaches the future. It’s not a coming of age story so much as it considers the multiple ways in which coming of age is deemed appropriate.

A real test of her adulthood comes when she’s asked out by David (Peter Sarsgaard), an older man. Contrary to expectations, the film does not become about lying, sex or abuse.  
Instead it’s about maturity, and Mulligan brilliantly pulls off a major lifestyle change without altering her personality to assumed cliches of pretension or neglect.  
Everything about “An Education” seems catered to an uncomfortable genre. But those coming out of the film surprised will have received an education they needed.