An Education (15)

MEET Carey Mulligan. She's "the new Keira Knightley" apparently.

In which case, I'd like to be the first person to say: Congratulations, Carey.

Here's to six years of rubbish blockbusters, getting your baps airbrushed on perfume ads, and the odd decent costume flick.

Cast your mind back, though, to a time before Pirates 3, King Arthur and Domino Harvey, and you might remember the massive impact Keira had when she arrived on the British movie scene.

The year was 2002. The film was Bend it Like Beckham. And to everyone who saw it, one thing was forehead-spankingly clear. A star had been born.

Well, it's happened again, readers. An Education is a star-making film. And awards for its annoyingly good 24-year-old star are a near-dead cert.

This coming-of-age drama, set in 1961 Twickenham, stars Carey as smart 16-year-old schoolgirl Jenny, who's slogging away at her A-levels with one beady eye trained on Oxford Uni. Her parents (Cara Seymour and Alfred Molina, AKA Doc Ock from Spider-Man 2) want her to use her smarts to get a degree and, more importantly, snare a posh husband.

But that plan goes out the window when she meets David (Peter Sarsgaard), a debonair 30- year-old "property developer" with a sharp suit, a sports car, and a taste in women that could be described as a bit Woody Allen.

David first sets eyes on Jenny when he spots her standing at a bus stop in the pouring rain after cello practice. He pulls over and, after a few minutes of silver-tongued chit-chat, convinces her to let him ferry her home.

Magic

It's the perfect intro to his character. David is part charmer, part groomer. And while he wins over the audience almost as quickly as he wins over Jenny, Sarsgaard plays him with a weird glint in his eye last seen on To Catch A Predator.

Jenny gets caught up in David's flash social life, and is soon living it up at concerts and jazz clubs with his toff mate Danny (a nice little turn from Dominic Cooper) and his dippy blonde WAG Helen (Rosamund Pike, on top form).

Naturally, Jen's schoolwork goes to pot. But given her new boyfriend is plying her with bubbly and whisking her off for romantic weekends, she couldn't care less.

Clearly, there's a lot more to Dave than you first think. But the genius of An Education is that you really wish there wasn't.

As he works his magic on Jenny, and later her parents, you'll be won over by his charm every bit as much as they are.

And the creeping hints that something darker is going on are easily ignored while you're lapping up the glitz of their relationship. The couple share a mid-film dirty weekend in Paris to celebrate Jen's 17th birthday, and it's a total treat.

Jenny looks like a young Audrey Hepburn. David looks like a man who's doing the dippity-doo-dah with a young Audrey Hepburn. Fantastic.

Truth is, An Education would be a great film even if Carey Mulligan wasn't in it.

The plot, from a memoir by Lynn Barber, is perfect movie material. The 60s setting is note- perfect. The script, penned by About A Boy scribe Nick Hornby, is snappy, slick and by turns surprisingly tender and funny.

(I wept like a big Jessie at the bit with the custard creams - look out for it.)

Director Lone Scherfig has a real talent for skipping the sentimentality, and keeping things fast, punchy and character-driven.

And the supporting cast is firing on all cylinders throughout.

Molina is laugh-out-loud funny as Jen's stuffy dad, young Matthew Beard does a great turn as her no-contest schoolboy admirer, and The Emma Thompson Cameo works without being smug or annoying, which is a sweet relief.

Yet here's the thing. An Education DOES have Carey Mulligan in it. And as such, it's destined to be remembered as "the first film you saw Carey Mulligan in".

Cos she's ruddy wonderful. And delivers one of those rare performances that can't really be faulted. Bafta glory, in some shape or form, is all but guaranteed.

So this is either the start of an epic life in movies or the most disappointing early career peak since Macaulay Culkin slapped on the aftershave in Home Alone.

But either way, it is well worth a look.

Because when the inevitable Vogue covers and five-minute perfume ads kick off, it'll be worth knowing what made Carey Mulligan so special in the first place.

OUT FRIDAY

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