‘The Education Of Jane Cumming’ review: Real-life 19th-century scandal inspires elegant, toothless period drama

Dir/scr: Sophie Heldman. Germany/Switzerland, UK. 2026. 114mins

Truth and lies swirl about one another in a Georgian Scottish boarding school in Sophie Heldman’s drama, co-written by star Flora Nicholson, which spotlights the pressures and injustices faced by women during the period. Largely playing out as a chamber piece, it is bolstered by a strong ensemble cast but remains structurally uneven and risks being too overly buttoned-up for its own good.

Risks being too overly buttoned-up for its own good

It’s not the first time a real-life case of two schoolmistresses who became mired in scandal has inspired a screen adaptation, previously informing William Wyler’s The Children’s Hour (1961). Heldman, who previously made marital drama Colours In The Dark (2010), and Nicholson base this version on the book Scotch Verdict, by Lillian Faderman. Handsome if somewhat muted, its LGBTQ+ themes, set within a period context, should ensure further festival play following its Berlin Panorama debut. Beyond, it will likely hold the most appeal for distributors looking to attract audiences who enjoyed the likes of Bridgerton and Downton Abbey.

In 1810, on the cusp of the Regency era, friends and governesses Jane Pirie (Nicholson) and Marianne Woods (Clare Dunne) are in the process of opening a boarding school for girls, where the curriculum includes maths and science alongside the more ‘ladylike’ lessons of the period. Friction arrives with a gaggle of new students. Margot Dunbar (Amy Louise Walker) and her younger sister Alexandra (Rebecca Martin) are arriving at the school on the rural outskirts of Edinburgh with their grandmother Lady Cumming Gordon (Fiona Shaw, on imperious form) and Jane Cumming (Mia Tharia), Lady Cumming’s dual heritage ‘illegitimate’ grandchild from India.

Although a match in intelligence and deportment for Margot and the rest of her classmates, Jane is viewed as an outsider by the other girls – a marginalisation never overtly articulated as racism. The two-girls-to-a-bed system at the school is among the pressure points, with Miss Pirie forced to share with Jane to avoid flare-ups. When summer comes and the school mistresses find themselves caring for Jane, left behind as her family decamp to Bath, the trio grow close. But when Jane faces rejection the following term, the seeds of a scandal take root.

Heldman builds her latest film around simmering tensions, not just between teachers and ward but between the women themselves, whose repressed feelings for one another form the drama’s emotional undercurrent. Balz Bachman’s subtle but responsive score guides the film through its shifting moods. In the chamber setting of the school, cinematographer Kate Reid makes the most of the contrast between cool daytime exteriors and the warm flicker of light at night – although when the story heads to the city, the palette feels overly bleached.

The excellent performances from the two leads allow a believable and, initially, ambiguous chemistry to hang between the bottled up Miss Pirrie and more relaxed Miss Woods. The younger cast members, along with Sadie Shimmin as Woods’ aunt and the teacher’s de facto housekeeper, also prove compelling, though the treatment of the central trio of relationships is delicate to a fault. The inner worlds of the characters remain under-unexplored and, for much of the film, the pace is often overly sedate. Once the central accusation has been made, the action begins a headlong rush to a rather abrupt conclusion.

In terms of world creation, Heldman’s film is assuredly realised, particularly the costuming from Peri De Braganca. It captures a slightly less opulent version of the period than is often brought to screens, and tellingly puts one character in an outmoded wig to match her regressive opinions.