This excellent, Academy Award nominated British Film was one of the screeners my wife received this year, and I am so glad she did. With getting married and buying a house, funds can be a bit tight, so we did not see as many movies as we used to see, and might have missed that one, and that would have been a real shame, because this is really one of the best films of the year. The film stars Carey Mulligan who I remember from the excellent recent Doctor Who Episode BLINK and the always great Peter Sarsgaard, and a stellar supporting cast, and they all bring something special to this film. This is a powerful coming of age story in 1961, where a young girl learns many harsh truths of the world that she lives in, and though it is hard, manages to come out stronger. It is beautifuly done, and we really get to see this girl get hers eyes opened. Really once of the best films of the year, and an absolute must see.

Jenny Mellor (Carey Mulligan) is a bright and intelligent high school girl, with big plans for her life, which all may soon change. On the way home in the rain from a chior practice, where she plays cello, she gets a ride from a charming older man named David Goldman (Peter Sarsgaard). The two strike up a friendship, and quickly a relationship. David manages to charm her parents Jack (the always amazing Alfred Molina) and Marjorie (Cara Seymour), and Jenny starts to date David. Jenny quickly meets David’s friends, Danny (Dominic Cooper) and his cute but dumb as a post girlfriend Helen (Rosamund Pike), and they all start having a wonderful time, but David’s world is not all good, because he is an amazing liar, and not everything he does seems to be on the up and up.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

Jenny even ends up going to Paris with her new friends, losing her virginity, and drawing the ire of the teachers at her school. Miss Walters (Emma Thompson) the school mistress will not allow anything like this to happen at her school, and Jenny’s favorite teacher Miss Stubbs (Olivia Williams) does not want to see Jenny get hurt, or ruin her future, but Jenny has fallen in love and does not want to listen.

Jenny starts to see the dark side of David’s life, where he swindles people for money. He moves black families into flats, so he can buy the other ones for cheap. And David and Danny go into houses for sale, and steal paintings and other valuables. Jenny doesn’t like it, but she is in love, and lets it go, especially once David proposes to her.

Danny tries to get David to not hurt Jenny, because he knows he will, knowing more about the man than Jenny.

Jenny’s dad quickly agrees to his daughter getting married to such a fine man (as far as he knows), since to him her going to college was only so she could find a good man anyway. Jenny does not like aspect, but loves David, so she wants to get married. Jenny ends up dropping out of school, leaving behind school, and her final year of studying.

While driving with David, Jenny looks in his glove compartment and sees letters addressed to him and his wife! She gets him to promise to tell her parents that he is already married, but instead he just drives off.

Jenny is absolutely crushed, and wants to go back to school, but Mrs. Walters will not allow her back. She has already made her bed.

Jenny goes to Miss Stubbs, and gets her to help her study, and Jenny manages to get into Oxford, studying English, as she wanted.

And she pretends like none of it happened, acting the innocent when dating the boys at school, but she is not quite so innocent anymore, having gotten a very harsh education in the ways of the world.

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Amazing performances, and a great story. Just a really good film with an amazing cast all the way around. I really look forward to Lone’s next film.