The English seem to be into the 1960's at the moment with 'The Boat That Rocked' and this film. The interesting thing being that Emma Thompson makes a cameo in both.
It is socially acceptable now that men will date younger women. This film kind of crosses the line with a man in his 30's dating a girl almost half his age. One thing I like to do in these situations is to imagine the sexes reversed. I'm not sure if it would work as well considering the guy would surprised to be dating an older woman but would he be into her for the sex or for the world she'd open up for him? My cynical side would suggest it would be all about the sex. It is also a film that could only occur in the 1960's. With women being as restricted as they were in that time it is no surprise that a girl like Jenny would grab the first chance she can to break out of it. I'm a fan of the film's director Lone Scherfig after a film she made a few years ago called 'Wilbur Wants To Kill Himself'. She is great at charting a person's emotional journey in finding themselves. The story is fairly predictable but as they say: 'the joy is not in the destination but the journey itself'. The journey is enjoyable but tragic as well. You are sitting there waiting for something to go wrong. You know that David is not all he says he is and so you wait for Jenny to find out about it. You kind of hope it won't happen but you know it will. The relationship is not right so it cannot end well. Maybe the surprise would have been to have the relationship to end happily.
The best thing about this film is Carey Mulligan as Jenny. Carey gives an excellent performance and is an actress I hope we see in more films in the future. She does an excellent job of playing the incredibly smart girl who is enticed away from her boring life by a better world but is not so smart to see the clues as to its eventual demise. Peter Sarsgaard is great at playing sleazy characters. Here he has to play sleazy and charming which he does quite well. His attempt at an English accent does not quite work though. Alfred Molina proves once again what a brilliant actor he is. I also liked seeing Rozamund Pike playing a less intelligent character. She plays the dumb blond really well as you know she is more intelligent than that.
A pleasant romantic drama that while predictable is still an enjoyable experience. I usually respond to intelligent characters so that's why I enjoyed this film as much as I did.
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