An Education (2009/Sony Blu-ray)
Picture:
B- Sound: B Extras: B- Film: B-
Most
coming-of-age films ring false, overly melodramatic and phony, but Lone
Scherfig’s An Education (2009) is
one of the few exceptions of late and fortunately received enough critical
acclaim, including a Best Picture nomination from the Academy Awards. A young woman named Jenny (Carey Mulligan)
and older man named David (the underrated Peter Sarsgaard) fall for each other
and the question is, will this work out or be a disaster.
Based on
the writings of Lynn Barber, it turns out to be a nuanced story about the
couple, the people around them and the time they meet. Between Jenny’s father (Alfred Molina) and
Headmistress she has at Oxford (Emma Thompson), the conformity and old ways can
be stifling, yet she needs to be concerned about her long term future and David
might not be able to give her everything.
He might even distract her from a better future if their relationship fails,
yet he is very generous and does an amazing job of bringing her closer to
happiness that her parochial, closed world can.
Nick Hornby
(High Fidelity, About A Boy) delivers his best screenplay to date, a smart,
intelligent, highly realized work that is constantly real and interesting. I was surprised how good this was when so
much could have gone wrong and does not.
Of course, we still have seen this story before, but this take is
impressive enough and the cast is a plus in this. Olivia Williams (Below), Rosamund Pike and, Dominic Cooper (From Hell, The Duchess)
also star.
The 1080p
2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image was shot in Super 35mm by Director of
Photography John de Borman (Last Chance
Harvey) and it is a good looking film, but there is some very slight
softness throughout that hurts the performance of this very good looking
film. The style is very slightly dark to
show the time and its conformity, while color range is impressive. The DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) lossless 5.1 mix
is even better, very warm and well recorded throughout. For a dialogue-based film, ambiance and
surrounds are healthy, plus Paul Englishby’s score is very good.
Extras
include BD Live interactive features, two featurettes (The Making of An Education, Walking
The Red Carpet), Deleted Scenes that are interesting and a feature length
audio commentary by Scherfig, Mulligan and Sarsgaard.
- Nicholas Sheffo
