(2009) In hopes of being accepted to Oxford to read English (if she can improve her Latin), 16-year-old Jenny Millar (Carey Mulligan) lives in Twickenham, London, in 1961 with her parents, Jack (Alfred Molina) and Marjorie (Cara Seymour). On the sly she smokes cigarettes with her girlfriends, enjoys singing along to French records, and reads existential literature.

Walking home in the rain with her cello after a concert, she's offered a ride by a handsome stranger driving a maroon Bristol; when she demurs, he charmingly suggests she at least put her instrument in the vehicle and then walk along side the sports car - eventually, soaked, she gets in. He introduces himself as David Goldman (Peter Sarsgaard, looking very much like a young Jack Lemmon), a Jew and a graduate from the university of life.

"Do you go to concerts?" "No," Jenny replies to David: "We don't believe in concerts." "Oh, I assure you, they're real" In short order, having swiftly won Jenny's affection, David ingratiates himself with her parents, especially her bounderish father, who's seeking advantage for his daughter through education toward an upper-class marriage. Her father dismisses Graham (Matthew Beard), a boy Jenny's age, as "a wandering Jew," for his wanting to take a year off before continuing his academic training.

First David takes her out to hear Ravel in St John's, Smith Square, introducing her to classical music performed by a professional orchestra. There she meets David's suave, sophisticated partner in property and art dealing, Danny (Dominic Cooper), along with Helen (Rosamund Pike), a glittery gorgeous blonde lacking a formal education. Next she cuts classes on a Friday to join them for an art auction of Pre-Raphaelite works, a passion she shares with the two men. Third, after David tells her parents that he wants to show Jenny around and introduce her to his former professor, author C.S. Lewis, Jack and Marjorie agree - getting to know "someone on the inside track" is a useful means toward achieving a desired goal - to permit their only child to travel with David to Oxford for a weekend.

From Nick Hornby's script, Lone Scherfig directs this poignant coming-of-age movie of a smart, pretty teenage girl, with plenty of promise, taken advantage of by a debonair deceiver, when even well-educated women had few opportunities for advancement on their own.

When Jenny learns the truth about David and Danny, thieves liberating artworks from people who don't appreciate them - "This is who we are" - she's initially repulsed before being persuaded to stay with David, taking a cue from a quote delivered by her favorite teacher at the all-girls' school, Miss Stubbs (Olivia Williams): "action is character."

After she's warned by both Miss Stubbs ("I'm trying to tell you to go to Oxford no matter what") and the headmistress, Mrs Walters (Emma Thompson) - "Nobody does anything worth doing without a degree…. And yes, of course studying is hard and boring..." - of the possible consequences of her dalliance with David, Jenny retorts: "So my choice is to do something hard and boring, or to marry my... Jew, and go to Paris and Rome and listen to jazz, and read, and eat good food in nice restaurants, and have fun!"

In Paris with David, having again flattered her folks into granting approval, for her seventeenth birthday, Jenny tells him (their lips agree they were meant to be): "Just treat me like a grownup."

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Copyright © 2010 Patrick Ivers. All rights reserved.
Reproduced with the permission of the copyright holder.

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