Excellent telling of a 60s coming of age story set in London. There’s something sinister going on for sure as Jenny (Mulligan) goes from being a top student, seemingly headed to Oxford, to a love-struck drop-out seeking a life of glamour. Even her otherwise sensible father (Molina) gets caught up in the romantic notion of happiness for his daughter. I was surprised at how small Emma Thompson’s role was. Still, it’s a superb cast with everyone at the top of their game.

I heard a lot of good things about this movie and for that reason I decided to watch it. It was just not that good of a film, in fact I thought it was horrible. Carey Mulligan’s character was just so annoying and poorly played. I actually didn’t like any of the characters. Not one had any redeeming qualities they were all whinny, bossy, oblivious, or jerks. If I want to spend 95 minutes with these kind of people I will just go to work. I definitely don’t want to spend my free time this way and you shouldn’t either. Pass on this one for your own peace of mind.

I had never heard any buzz on this movie but as it was from the writer of About a Boy and High Fidelity I thought that this would be at least worth watching. The cast is great, the cinematography is great. Peter Sarsgaard is the embodiment of sleaze and charm and it’s thrilling to watch. The movie falls short at the end though when the relationship disintegrates and she forced to realize there are no short cuts in life. Suddenly (and rather incongruously) they do a montage of her studying and voila! she passes her exams. The End! Um, okay?!!? A horrible under use of Rosamund Pike (love her). I feel they could have made the relationship between her and her teacher more significant and meaningful especially at the end. That is the meaning of the movie after all isn’t it?

Alfred Molina amazing. Everyone else is quite good. Beautiful cinematography. Story is good.