An Education

It's 1961. A 16-year-old girl is seduced by a charming older man. It'll all end in tears. But every potentially ruinous cliché on the way is avoided by Danish director Scherfig (Italian for beginners). Instead this is a subtle coming-of-age, and coming-of-the-60's, story. Peter Sarsgaard as the older man is a fine foil for Carey Mulligan, compared by many critics to Audrey Hepburn for her spellbinding central performance. Nick Hornby has crafted a fine screenplay from Lynn Barber's memoir of life before Oxford.