Rosamund Pike kills it as Amy Dunne in Gone Girl, but she isn’t an overnight sensation. Pike has been stealing scenes as a supporting actress for years, and her turn as a beautiful but not-so-smart ’60s socialite in 2009’s An Education is some of her best work.
An Education is a wonderful movie apart from Pike’s daffy performance; Carey Mulligan is wonderful as a precocious, naive high school student making bad choices. Peter Sarsgaard walks the line between charming and creepy perfectly as her much-older suitor. Alfred Molina makes me cry every time as Mulligan’s loving but foolish father. Everyone in it is good! But Pike still shines; I remember seeing this in theatres and wondering why she wasn’t a movie star.