Sixteen is by no means the only age at which love affairs with older, charming (and sometimes even Jewish) men seem most exciting. However, as even 16-year-olds probably know by now, they may be the most susceptible at that age.It is a fact Miss Stubbs, played by Olivia Williams in the film An Education, seems acquainted with. An English teacher whose austere appearance seems the result of a youthfulness stolen and squandered, she attempts to relay this knowledge with penetrating glances through her thick-rimmed glasses to Jenny (Carey Mulligan), a standout, Oxford-bound student in her class. Despite her continual efforts, such as making ominous references to the older, crippled and unkind Mr. Rochester in classroom discussions of Jane Eyre to accompany the giddy chatter among schoolgirls, Miss Stubbs seems to understand that the obstacles she subtly though forcefully advises Jenny to avoid are those that Jenny will have to study on her own-an education, Miss Stubbs seems to understand, they will ultimately share.

An Education follows Jenny's story, based on a memoir by Lynn Barber about her young life in the sleepy, serious town of Twickenham, England in the 1960s, which is jolted by the appearance of "wandering Jew" David (Peter Sarsgaard). Jenny's overbearing father, played by Alfred Molina, who provides his character with just the right amount of distasteful qualities so that a viewer's capacity for forgiveness is not entirely lost, constantly steers her in the direction of their mutual academic aspirations, even presenting her with a Latin dictionary (a reminder of her worst subject) on her birthday. Her "hobby" is the cello, as dictated by her father, though in actuality it is her passion. Her cello provides the opportunity for her to meet David, who drives by a rain-soaked Jenny after rehearsal. He offers what seems to be a gesture of the utmost gallantry, suggesting that he secure her cello in his car as she walks, since he himself announces that getting in a car with a stranger is unwise. It is in retrospect a keen proposition, as it is Jenny who eventually asks for admittance into the automobile amid further unpleasant exposure to the rain. David-older, Jewish and equipped with an uncanny ability to persuade people according to his suggestions and desires (coaxing Jenny's protective parents under false pretenses on numerous occasions to allow their teenage daughter to accompany him on weekend adventures), supports his lavish lifestyle through lies, schemes and charm. Though initially unaware, Jenny eventually becomes acquainted with her love interest's questionable ways, but she does not leave him.

The film, although a tale of misguided young love, is not a story of predator and prey or older con man and na've schoolgirl-it depicts the conflicts between amounting to one's destiny and the realization that the destiny arranged may not yield any desired results. When thrust into the office of the headmistress, played brilliantly though briefly by Emma Thompson, Jenny unleashes her frustrations with her post-Oxford prospects-an unsatisfied life not unlike the ones Cambridge graduate Miss Stubbs and the headmistress live. "There's also public service," the headmistress replies. With such a rigid direction that the best education can provide, Jenny's thirst for another education (such as the one David procured from the "University of Life") seems wholly justified.

One of the film's greatest successes-there are plenty-is in the characterization of Jenny, which allows the audience to partially support the character's poor decisions. Though inexperienced in love, she is not a docile female figure. It is clear that though she is not the first of David's conquests, he has a sincere affection and love for her, a condition easily provoked by her intelligence and cleverness. However, Jenny is not without a dash of snobbery and some unflattering qualities, the markers of a realistic character.

There is no moment that would incite an exasperated sigh or an irritated glance, reactions An Education avoids with the kind of ease other love stories of this nature seem to have. Small gestures and subtlety drive the film. The exchanges between student and teacher, hopeful girl and experienced woman, are well-pronounced, though Jenny and Miss Stubbs' conversations hardly exceed a handful of minutes. David's justification of his scheming, "concerts, supper at restaurants, nights at the jazz club . don't grow on trees," echoes Jenny's father's own ruminations on the topic of money, but the eerie way in which the sentiments the men in her life share both contradict and support each other is captured by a simple look. Miss Stubbs' own story is never revealed, the confession of Jenny's father's failings are told behind a closed door (his regret most heartbreakingly marked by the conciliatory tea and biscuits he leaves at the doorstep), and Jenny's mother's conflicting views to her father's are never outright spoken-they are simply noted by sympathetic frowns.

Potentially An Education's biggest achievement is the way in which every conflict and every joyful event is checkered, rounding each development in the story with a layered commentary-though this is one that does not strive to provoke epiphanies or solve age-old questions, instead relishing its inability to do so. It is not simply that Jenny is 16 and her lover twice that. Yes, David is a con man, but he also happens to be in love. Jenny's parents stifle her with their expectations, but it is clear that they have made ample sacrifices on her behalf.

Perhaps the film's message, transmitted with no intended moralist agenda, is best captured in Jenny's attempt to make amends with the female educators she once shunned. Jenny turns to her headmistress stripped of the pride with which she originally entered her office, remarking to the stern school administrator, "You must think I'm a ruined woman." Her headmistress responds with what initially appears to be a sympathetic glance, only to shake her head and say, "Oh no, you're not a woman."

When Jenny approaches Miss Stubbs-a woman whose empathy is still intact, unlike her superior's-she rephrases the sentiment her headmistress dismisses, providing an epigram to describe the woeful lessons she learned outside the classroom, "I feel old," she says, "though not wise.