OliviaWilliams Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Danish director Lone Scherfig's new movie An Education is one of the finest movies I've seen so far this year and definitely one I'll be gunning for come Oscar time (and I am in good company). Based on the memoir by Lynn Barber and delicately adapted by Nick Hornby, An Education stars Carey Mulligan as Jenny, an Oxford-bound schoolgirl who finds the excitement she's been yearning for with David, a smooth operator played by Peter Sarsgaard. (As if dating a much older man who takes her out to parties, art auctions, and horse races isn't edgy enough in 1961, he's also Jewish. Oy!) James Rocchi wrote an excellent review of An Education from Sundance.

David manages to win her strict parents over (Alfred Molina and Cara Seymour) and as their relationship progresses, she transforms into an ultrachic '60s girl who brings her giggling friends perfume back from Paris. Olivia Williams (Dollhouse) is also outstanding as her concerned teacher. Rosamund Pike is great as the glamorous girlfriend of David's friend Danny, who is played by a rather debonair Dominic Cooper. Will she stay in school and head to Oxford or get a more real-world education from David and his friends?

The first trailer from Sony Picture Classics is up over at Yahoo, and it's a great tease of the joys to come in the feature-length film. The official website is here.

Barber is a respected journalist in the UK for The Observer and has given several very interesting interviews about An Education that spoil the plot just an eensy bit. If you're that curious, Google's got your back.

A retro film set in 1960s London is interesting. Hearing that Nick Hornby wrote the script makes it intriguing. An awesome cast -- that just makes the upcoming film An Education sound downright tasty. Variety reports that Lone Scherfig, the Danish filmmaker behind Happy-Go-Lucky, is gearing up to helm the feature, and these are the names she'll get to mold with her directorial hands: Peter Sarsgaard, Orlando Bloom, Alfred Molina, Sally Hawkins, Rosamund Pike, Emma Thompson, Olivia Williams, and newcomer Carey Mulligan. (Some of the cast signed on earlier this month.)

While I vowed that I learned my lesson about great actors not necessarily making great movies after Derailed, I so, so, so want to see this. The film will focus on a 17-year-old girl played by Mulligan who lived in the quiet burbs of London. However, it's during the swinging '60s, and she gets pulled into craziness by a 30-something Brit played by Sarsgaard. (Cradle robber.) As THR described it: "He courts her with chic dinners, clubs, and foreign trips, charming her father (Molina) but putting her future at Oxford University in jeopardy." Thompson, meanwhile, plays her school's headmistress.

Dumb joke of the day #2: She should've bought a SarsGuaard.

Production begins in London this March.