It’s a script review, so I guarantee spoilers or your money back.
An Education
Written by Nick Hornby
Adapted from the article ‘An Education’ by Lynn Barber
115 Pages
This is going to be very short and sweet as reading An Education was anything but. That’s not say I didn’t enjoy it — I did — but I can’t say it really blew me away in any department enough for me to comment in any detail. This though is possibly because it is far removed from my usual comfort area of genre movies as it was a period-piece all about relationships rather than stuff exploding in a far away galaxy.
Starting off with the negatives, I don’t really have any. Only I prefer a bit more white on the page. I found Hornby’s (not surprising) novelistic style a bit too over-detailed in — telling us what the characters were like rather than trusting the reader to discover through their actions.
So what about the positives?
As I’ve said this is a solid but not spectacular script so it is hard to pin-point anything in particular stand-out but my favourite moments in the screenplay were when Jenny’s father, Jack was in the fray. Providing most of the comedic moments, Jack is not as smart as his daughter and also shares her lack of knowledge of the real-world with his baseless opinions on everything. Thus when David appears on the scene he is able to run circles around Jack and his protective instincts for his daughter.
If there was one aspect I think An Education did very well it was at a thematic level. Yes, the title refers to the tough life-lesson the central protagonist Jenny learns but you can easily see how it concerns all the sub-characters too. Learning from it we need to ask what thematically our own scripts are about — and how can we express this not just with the arc of the main character but those supporting too.
Next Week
Get ready to learn some new swear words as we keep the British end up with the Oscar nominated screenplay In The Loop.
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I thought this was a really intelligent script. I agree that Hornby gets away with a more prose style because he is who he is (and his wife was co-producing!) But was most effecting for me was the way he made us root for David and Jenny – even though deep down we knew it was wrong and it should’ve repulsed us. David was written so well that we are swept up in his suave charisma, and we really do start to believe that this is what is best for Jenny.
So when it all comes crashing down, the reader feels as stupid as the very smart Jenny – because we both knew instinctively that it was wrong – but we didn’t want to believe it. Even at the end, when David turns up in Cambridge, the implication is that although he cuts a pathetic figure, maybe he actually did love her the whole time. That is mighty and extremely sophisticated writing!
Yes, I think the script’s success hinges on David being a likeable (and sometimes sympathetic) character otherwise he’d just come across as some Terry Thomas-esque bounder and there’d be no story.