BEFORE: Emma Thompson carries over from "Effie Gray" and so does the plot point of an older man dating a younger woman - I've just moved about a century forward in time, though, and we're still in the U.K. tonight. I know, I know, it's President's Day, but just like Black History, it's a holiday that I'm not usually able to celebrate with movies, because I'm always so busy covering the romance beat in February. OK, so who was President during the last few romance films? For "Mansfield Park" it was probably James Madison, "An Ideal Husband" was first staged during the Grover Cleveland era (2nd term), "Wuthering Heights" came out during the term of James Polk, and "Effie Gray" got married to John Ruskin around the same time, 1847-48.
"Carrington" covered the years 1915 to 1932, so that's Wilson, Harding, Coolidge and Hoover.
So tonight I'm rocketing forward into the Kennedy years, namely 1961. Yeah, that tracks. Still, a bit before my time, but at least in the decade I was born.
THE PLOT: A coming-of-age story about a teenage girl in 1960s suburban London, and how her life changes with the arrival of a playboy nearly twice her age.
AFTER: OK, for a long while I thought that maybe, just maybe, I'd finally found a film this year with two British people in a relationship who could land on the same page. But no, that just wouldn't be an interesting, dramatic film, now would it? Think about it - would you go to see a movie about a couple that meets cute, starts dating, gets married and has absolutely no relationship problems or issues to resolve at all? You'd be asleep before the movie was half over - unfortunately conflict is a key element in relationship movies. Without it, the filmmakers would just be showing the most boring aspects of love.
Of course, with an older man trying to date a girl who's still in high school, there's your conflict, right? Even if these crazy kids can make things work out, then they still have to face society, what with her being 17 and him being, what, 34? 35? I don't know that the film ever landed on a number here - the fact that he's Jewish and a music lover, geez, that came out in their first conversation. David also seems to know a lot about art, and he and his friends meet in fancy restaurants, smoke cigarettes and discuss French films, and young Jenny desperately wants to be part of that world. If only she didn't have to, you know, go to HIGH SCHOOL every day and try to pass her exams and get into Oxford.
Oh, yeah, there's the small matter of Jenny's parents - her father's the one pushing her to play an instrument, have a hobby, anything that will help with the Oxford application. But once Jenny's seen the larger world that's out there, and it's one of classical music concerts, art auctions and romantic suppers, how can she possibly concentrate on studying? And David's such a smooth talker that he somehow manages to not only take Jenny on a date, but he plans an overnight trip, ostensibly to Oxford so that Jenny can visit the college, meet C.S. Lewis and maybe get her foot in the door there? Of course, this is all a ruse just so David can take a 16-year old girl (!!) on an overnight trip.
Yeah, the red flags are there, but Jenny doesn't seem to want to notice. David's idea of a career in "real estate" involves moving black families into neighborhoods where they're not wanted. He claims to be doing this for the benefit of equality and fair housing, but couldn't that also be seen as de-gentrification? And, umm, how does he benefit, who's paying him to do that? David and his friend Danny also believe in searching old ladies' homes for valuable pieces of art and then "re-locating" that art, aka stealing it. And if he's not honest about what he does for a living, what else isn't he being honest about, hmmm?
Jenny's formal education starts to take a back seat when thoughts of marriage to David arise - she even tells off her teachers, and surprisingly, her parents seem just as happy about her marrying someone who's well-off as they were about her going to Oxford? Well, OK, then, I guess there's no need for university if you can just get married! The title of the film here seems doubly ironic, because at the same time Jenny is ignoring her school education, she seems to be gaining an education in the way the world works, followed by an education on relationships, and how some men will take advantage of the more naive, younger women. I guess every girl's got to find that out the hard way?
Eventually, it's Jenny's 17th birthday, and I guess that makes her legally an adult? It also means a trip to Paris with David, and they finally consummate the relationship, but not long after, she finds out that the emphasis should really have been on the "CON" part. Damn, if only she hadn't dropped out of school and told off every single one of her teachers...
Carey Mulligan was 22 years old when this was filmed (and a year or two older when it was released), but she sure looked 16, her character's age for most of the film. This was four years after she was in "Pride & Prejudice" and four years before she was in "The Great Gatsby", if that helps. Emma Thompson only worked one day of the shoot, her headmistress character was a small role but an important one - I guess maybe she got some career advice from Bruce Willis? This film spent a few years on that list of "1,001 Movies to See Before You Die", but at some point it was removed to make room for newer, better (?) movies. I'd avoided it for so long that when I first put it on my list, it was on Netflix, and it scrolled off of that service, too, at some time. It's not really streaming anywhere for free now, so I had to rent it from iTunes. C'est la vie.
Here's something I've never understood, and maybe I never well - the old British money system. I think I understand pounds, but in this movie they also mention bobs, quids and guineas. What the F? How many bobs in a guinea? How many pounds in a quid, or is it quids in a pound? OK, maybe the U.S. system is just as confusing if you didn't grow up with nickels and dimes, but still, how the hell did anybody in the U.K. understand how much things cost? It's just a very weird thing, right?
Also starring Carey Mulligan (last seen in "Mudbound"), Peter Sarsgaard (last seen in "Shattered Glass"), Dominic Cooper (last seen in "The Duchess"), Rosamund Pike (last seen in "I Care a Lot"), Alfred Molina (last seen in "Spider-Man: No Way Home"), Cara Seymour (last seen in "Birth"), Olivia Williams (last seen in "Victoria & Abdul"), Sally Hawkins (last seen in "Godzilla: King of the Monsters"), Matthew Beard (last seen in "Johnny English Strikes Again"), Ellie Kendrick, Amanda Fairbank-Hynes (last seen in "Tinker Tailer Soldier Spy"), Luis Soto, James Norton (last seen in "Hampstead").
RATING: 5 out of 10 bottles of Chanel perfume
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