Une éducation

Nick Hornby peut écrire n'importe quoi et, automatiquement, j’aimerai. Je ne m’attendais pas pour autant à ce qu’il écrive un scénario basé sur une œuvre littéraire dont il n’est pas lui-même l’auteur. Mais on reconnaît malgré tout sa plume, notamment à travers quelques dialogues mémorables. Pour moi, Carrey Mulligan est une actrice très singulière au point que je ne peux même pas dire si elle me plaît ou non. En tout cas, son rôle lui allait parfaitement, tout comme Alfred Molina qui était remarquable dans son petit rôle. Un film britannique fichtrement bien foutu que j’ai incompréhensiblement laissé de côté jusqu’à maintenant. (26/07/2014)

Une chose très joliment filmée et jouée avec talent, dont le contenu se termine là où un film digne de retenir l'attention ne fait que commencer. Par exemple, "Fish Tank" utilise une prémisse similaire seulement comme l'un des nombreux éléments d'un récit plus complexe et plus riche en émotions et en réflexions. (31/03/2010)

A ruthless feminist romance where all the men are wimps and manipulators. Interestingly, it follows the standard romance scheme until the last fifteen minutes, which would be cool to communicate here graphically, but I'll have to make do with my legendary powers of expression. Imagine a graph that maps 10 points vertically and 8 horizontally. The vertical represents the protagonist's state of mind (the higher the score, the better); the horizontal represents the progression of the plot. Let's call point number one the Status Quo (value 3), where both characters are still unaware of each other, their lives intertwining, yet missing something. Probably love. Point two we'll call Encounter (value 4), followed by point three, with a value of 6, namely Enchantment. Point 4 falls under the category of Happy Experiences Together Against All Odds. This now has a value of 8, and is mostly a montage of picnics and the shared activities of the protagonists, despite the jealous and the uptight. Item 5 is the top on the vertical scale (10) and is First Sex/Paris/True Confessions, etc. And then comes the twist, i.e., the Disaster/Messup, which drops our vertical line down to number 1, from which then comes horizontal point 7, Running/Reconciliation (a value of 5), and then the last point 8, Reconciliation and New Beginnings, which also has a value of 8, but not higher, because the stigma of point 6 will be forever present and the characters are wiser/jaded, so their relationship will no longer have the drive it did in its beginnings. An Education taps into this formula after point 6 when there is not Running but actually Escape, so point 8 doesn’t represent Reconciliation but only Resignation, a departure from romance in general at the expense of education and the future, plus a bit of healthy sexism. As a result, the last point of the film never gets above a midpoint of 5, but the heroine becomes much more satisfied with herself. Otherwise, Carey Mulligan with her long man fingers, throaty laugh, and mega-dimples is a great combination of the be careful/be fascinated girl. (21/09/2013)

Yes, I know it's basically an ordinary life story, and I shouldn't expect anything groundbreaking from it, but... But for my taste, it is probably too ordinary, bland, seen, heard, read countless times... In short, it’s nothing special. I liked the period atmosphere, and the lovely Carey Mulligan was fine (I wonder when and in what I last saw a young actress who looked so much like Audrey Hepburn), but otherwise I wasn't impressed with An Education. I definitely wanted more out of Nick Hornby's script. The film begins like the half-forgotten generational account Beat Girl, but it develops and ends differently - worse.__P.S. Was it my imagination or was Peter Sarsgaard trying to make himself look like Ewan McGregor?__P.P.S. I would have liked to see someone more "British" for the role Alfred Molina took on. (14/06/2012)

The story of a young girl who discovers what is actually important in her life. Or maybe she doesn't discover it, but she thinks she did at the end of the movie, even though anything can follow. Excellent performances by the actors who fit together perfectly, but surprisingly, Alfred Molina impressed me the most, as he can knock you out with just one scene. (08/06/2016)