Based on a memoir by journalist Lynn Barber, "An Education" tells the story of a 16-year-old girl, Jenny (Carey Mulligan), in the early 1960s as she picks her way through the minefields of adolescence and coming of age. She's a cellist in her school orchestra, but her primary focus is getting accepted into Oxford.

Following an after-school rehearsal, Jenny is walking home in the rain, when a man she doesn't know offers her a ride. David (Peter Sarsgaard) is suave, debonair and worldly. He also drives a very fancy sports car, all of which has an enormous effect on Jenny. When he invites her to a concert, and concocts an untruth to appease her unsuspecting parents, Marjorie (Cara Seymour) and Jack (Alfred Molina), Jenny is immediately smitten. She begins cutting school and taking weekends with David and his friends, Danny (Dominic Cooper) and Helen (Rosamund Pike).

There are so many exquisite aspects to this movie, but first and foremost, is the writing. Hornby has exacted a script that completely captures the tenor of the 60's. David's gentlemanliness and bon vivant swagger has everyone hooked. Even Jack and Marjorie can't resist his worldliness and thus allow their daughter to fall into his trap as easily as if they were handing over their luggage.

Everyone, and I mean everyone, in this cast is perfect. Mulligan most assuredly will receive some nomination for her outstanding portrayal. Under the tutelage of Helen, Jenny goes from schoolgirl to Audrey Hepburn look-alike. She's beguiling and bewitching --- all at the same time. And speaking of Helen, Pike gives an incredible performance. Every time she raises her lovely eyebrows and gives a sidelong glance, you know exactly what she's thinking --- which isn't much --- she simply wants to party and live the good life. She cannot fathom why Jenny wants to read books and attend university.

Sarsgaard is equally amazing, every subtle nuance a work of genius. I even really liked Cooper, with whom, up to now, I wasn't that enamored. The role of Jack was virtually made in heaven for Molina. It would be nigh impossible to imagine anyone else playing Jenny's father.

It's entirely understandable how this film won the Audience Award at Sundance, and came in second at the Chicago International Film Festival. It's a brilliant, small movie that deserves all of the kudos it will receive.

Sarsgaard has that certain look and style that always hints at something not quite right lurking beneath his noble exterior. When he offers Jenny a ride, and an escape from the elements, we revert to a basic tenet of growing up, that is, don't get into a car with a stranger. But this is the 1960's, and things were somewhat different then. David quickly charms Jenny by offering to keep her cello dry while she walks alongside his expensive auto.

Jenny is more mature and adventurous than her giggly schoolmates, so soon she is sitting beside David. As her time with him develops into a relationship, despite their age difference, it has real credibility, proven by how she interacts with David's contemporaries, Danny (Dominic Cooper) and Helen (Rosamund Pike). Eventually things begin to unravel and Mulligan's exceptional performance takes off.

Jenny is the obvious recipient of the learning experience in the film's title, but as the movie progresses, there are other characters who acquire "an education". I love Molina in practically every role he's undertaken, and as Jack, the waffling father of Jenny, he nearly steals the show. He is the iron-fisted patriarch who won't let his daughter out of the house --- until he is charmed by David to the point where he gives his blessing for their weekend getaway to Oxford to meet the famous author, C.S. Lewis.

Jenny's teacher Miss Stubbs (Olivia Williams) is another character who learns something --- that life is more than just classrooms and textbooks. Although an unmarried school teacher, Miss Stubbs realizes from her much younger student that she has much to offer in her chosen profession.

Sarsgaard plays the role of David to perfection. He is smooth and just a bit smarmy, enough to raise a red flag --- if not for Jenny, then certainly for the audience. Our suspicions are confirmed when it's revealed how David makes a living, and thus begins the denouement of this well-written, and especially well-acted story. "An Education", directed by female Danish filmmaker, Lone Scherfig, captured the Audience Award at this year's Sundance Festival.