An Education
Metascore
85 out of 100

Universal acclaim - based on 34 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 32 out of 34
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 34
  3. Negative: 0 out of 34
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  1. The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
    Reviewed by: Liam Lacey
    100
    Hornby is a fine craftsman and his dialogue sparkles, though occasionally the scenes are too calculated.
  2. The Hollywood Reporter
    Reviewed by: James Greenberg
    90
    Topped by a fine cast, a first-rate script by Nick Hornby and tight direction by Lone Scherfig, the film is a smart, moving but not inaccessible entry in the coming-of-age canon.
  3. Chicago Sun-Times
    Reviewed by: Roger Ebert
    100
    This happens in 1961, when 16-year-old girls were a great deal less knowing than they are now. Yet the movie isn't shabby or painful, but romantic and wonderfully entertaining.
  4. St. Louis Post-Dispatch
    Reviewed by: Joe Williams
    100
    The combination of a literate script, an adroit cast and an economical style is simple addition that achieves an alchemical feat: the best film of the year.
  5. Rolling Stone
    Reviewed by: Peter Travers
    88
    An Education is remarkable for the traps it doesn't fall into. Jenny, for all her naive impulses, isn't a victim.
  6. Chicago Tribune
    Reviewed by: Michael Phillips
    88
    The film version of “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” came out in the year in which An Education is set, and beyond the hairstyles, there’s something of the willful, gleeful Golightly reinvention expert about Jenny.
  7. Miami Herald
    Reviewed by: Rene Rodriguez
    88
    The film wouldn't work at all, though, if Sarsgaard didn't strike the perfect balance between snaky predator and love-struck fool.
  8. New York Post
    Reviewed by: Kyle Smith
    88
    Despite the lingering aroma of Victorian rot shrouding 1961, An Education is excitingly young.
  9. Philadelphia Inquirer
    Reviewed by: Carrie Rickey
    88
    Disarming and unexpectedly poignant, An Education contrasts the knowledge learned in school with that learned from life.
  10. USA Today
    Reviewed by: Claudia Puig
    88
    Through stellar performances, clever writing and exquisite cinematography, the story is fresh and thoroughly captivating.
  11. ReelViews
    Reviewed by: James Berardinelli
    88
    In the end, this is more a character study of Jenny than a tale of tortured love, and a reminder that any education worth having comes with its share of trauma.
  12. New Orleans Times-Picayune
    Reviewed by: Mike Scott
    88
    It's a career-making performance that relies as much on charm as on acting ability -- and Mulligan has both.
  13. Film Threat
    Reviewed by: Elias Savada
    90
    Technical elements are among the best this year. Photography, editing, music, production design, and costumes all add seamless period flavor to the puritanical stew that was London almost a half-century ago.
  14. Austin Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Marjorie Baumgarten
    89
    A distinctive story with universal appeal.
  15. Portland Oregonian
    Reviewed by: Shawn Levy
    100
    It is, in its quiet, precise, classical way, nearly perfect.
  16. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Lisa Schwarzbaum
    91
    Afterward, you'll want to listen to the Beatles sing ''She's Leaving Home.'' It might be a girl like Jenny the lads had in mind.
  17. Salon.com
    Reviewed by: Andrew O'Hehir
    100
    An Education captures the very limited possibilities for female liberation in early-'60s London -- with massive social change on the distant horizon, but not here yet -- in exquisite detail.
  18. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Kenneth Turan
    100
    This is a performance, and a film, to cherish for this year and always.
  19. Wall Street Journal
    Reviewed by: Joe Morgenstern
    100
    This tale of an English schoolgirl's hard-won wisdom is thrilling --for the radiance of Carey Mulligan's Jenny, who's wonderfully smart and perilously tender; for the grace of Lone Scherfig's direction, and the brilliance of Nick Hornby's screenplay.
  20. The A.V. Club
    Reviewed by: Nathan Rabin
    91
    An Education shares with Hornby’s best work trenchant insight into the way smart, hyper-verbal young people let the music, films, books, and art they love define themselves as they figure out who they are and what they want to be.
  21. Christian Science Monitor
    Reviewed by: Peter Rainer
    91
    Bracingly perceptive about the human comedy.

User Reviews

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User Score
8.0 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 164 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 41 out of 50
  2. Mixed: 4 out of 50
  3. Negative: 5 out of 50
  1. grandpajoe6191
    8
    Director Lon Scherfig orchestrates his french maturity movie "An Education" with consistency, maintaining the tone of the movie pretty classy. Other than that, Peter Sarsgaard also does a superb performance throughout the movie. It's a film that deeply troubled teens will watch and understand.… Full Review »
  2. JoelM.
    2
    Overrated creepy, unbelievable film. Parents pimping their daughter portrayed as comedic. Film is as manipulative and puerile as the central male character. Typical of the director's approach: if we don't like the schoolmaster's point of view, make her an anti-semitic monster. Heroine's wisdom at the end amounts to "been there, done that" as an epiphany.… Full Review »
  3. GrafZ
    5
    It's well made and well acted, but after 40 or 50 minutes everything just falls apart. Or maybe it's just me tired of dumb moralizing.
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