Iffy Education, but Carey Mulligan is a star

There appears to be no stopping Carey Mulligan, the 24-year-old English actress who has enjoyed rave reviews for her starring role in An Education, ahead of this week's opening at British cinemas.

She is already appearing in two big American movies, and has recently signed for two British films, all on the strength of her breakthrough role in this adaptation of Lynn Barber's 1960s memoir.

The first of the British duo is The Beautiful Fantastic, a modern-day fairy tale starring Joanna Lumley, Christopher Ecclestone and Tom Wilkinson, about a shy children's author who falls in love with an eccentric inventor.

The other is Brighton Rock, a new adaptation of the Graham Greene novel, starring Sam Riley as the small-town gangster Pinkie, the role made famous by Richard Attenborough in John Boulting's 1947 original.

In America, Mulligan will appear in one of this winter's big dramas, Brothers, starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Tobey Maguire. And she's currently on location in New York for Oliver Stone's sequel to Wall Street. She plays the daughter of Gordon Gekko, the part Michael Douglas excelled in and which he will reprise for Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps.

But first there's An Education and her breakthrough role as Jenny, the 16-year-old who must choose between university and her love for a roguish older man played by Peter Sarsgaard.

The reviews of Lone Scherfig's direction and Nick Hornby's script are not universally approving, but it's hard to find a bad word written anywhere about Mulligan's performance.

"She really is brilliant," said Scherfig herself. "She has fragility, she has humour, she can be very moving, she's bright and she's great to look at." As for her line-up of new projects, Scherfig said: "Her career is taking off with a speed I've never seen before."

WHAT THE CRITICS ARE SAYING:

Toby Young, the Times: "This is a wonderful, life-affirming picture that deserves all the prizes it will undoubtedly win. I can't call it the best British film of the year because it's still only October. But I'd be amazed if a better one comes along."

Kenneth Turan, LA Times: "Mulligan seizes the character of 16-year-old Jenny in a once-in-a-lifetime way. The notion of the single performance that creates a star overnight is surely one of Hollywood's biggest cliches, but this is one time when you can take it to the bank."

Robert Hanks, the Independent: "The glamour stripped away, the film seems abruptly empty, Jenny herself a cypher. We need at this point to be on the inside, looking out. If Hornby and Scherfig knew how to do that, this would be a great film; as it is, we'll have to settle for pretty good."

A.O. Scott, the New York Times: "The film might have had some of the heft and complication of a novel but instead, as with so much of Mr. Hornby's work, like High Fidelity and About a Boy, it is content to be a deftly turned pop artifact. It's a pleasure which I don't mean entirely as a compliment."

Ryan Gilby, the New Statesman: "The film uses this teenager's awakening as a metaphor for the imminent cultural explosion. But it rather overplays that idea: you come away with the impression that Jenny single-handedly created the 1960s by sleeping with an older man, hating suburbia and dreaming of being French.

David Denby, the New Yorker: "Carey Mulligan is self-possessed, but what makes the movie unusual is the strange innocence of Sarsgaard's seducer: David is a liar and swindler, but he is as eager as Jenny is for pleasures of every kind - he enjoys them as if for the first time."

Peter Bradshaw, the Guardian: "The story, as it is played out, is not too far from the kitchen-sink dramas from the 60s era of Billy Liar and A Taste of Honey. Traditionally, it's the working-class girl who gets above herself, gets into trouble and has to get it sorted. But this girl is middle class and pregnancy isn't what happens: what is aborted, or almost aborted, is Jenny's Oxford career."

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone magazine: "The incandescent Mulligan, 24, is a major find who makes Jenny's journey from gawky duckling to sad, graceful swan an unmissable event."