Promising Young Woman
Starring: Carey Mulligan, Bo Burnham, Laverne Cox, Jennifer Coolidge
Directed By: Emerald Fennell
Rated: R
Whew! This movie is divisive for so many different reasons. If there is any advice I can offer you, do not watch Promising Young Woman on Christmas Day when it’s scheduled to release. The night I watched it, I felt so upset that I could not go to sleep afterward. So allow yourself some festive holiday time. If you want to know a good timeframe to watch this, I would say the month of January. Nothing is going on then anyway. Plenty of time to sit around and be mad.
“Do you know what every woman’s worst nightmare is?”
Promising Young Woman gets its title from the highly publicized Brock Turner case. Turner was a rapist referred to as a “promising young man” in court. (He absolutely was not that.) The film is a revenge tale following Cassandra (Cassie), a 30-year old barista who dropped out of med school after her best friend, Nina, was raped. Nina was not believed by her friends, peers, or the court and eventually committed suicide because of the trauma.
Haunted by the loss of Nina, Cassie spends her days at the coffee shop with her boss/friend Gail (Laverne Cox). But she’s hiding a secret. Every night, she goes out to a club and pretends to be drunk until a self-proclaimed “nice guy” offers to take her home. The guys always make a detour to their apartment where they try to sleep with her assuming she’s too drunk to stop them, but she’s stone-cold sober waiting to let them know that they aren’t the “nice guys” they claim to be. She does this as an act of revenge for Nina because she can’t get past the event. She’s stuck in a cycle that won’t end. When Ryan (Bo Burnham), a face from her med school days, re-enters her life, she wonders if it’s possible to move on from the horrific events of the past or if a new path to revenge is being paved?
Writer/Director Emerald Fennell directs Promising Young Woman with impressive candy-coated style. She frames Cassandra as a martyr figure with distinct visual cues and strategically placed setpieces. In the daytime, Cassie dresses in feminine and floral patterns displaying the picture of innocence. When the night rolls around, she has a vamped up persona. Fennell writes Cassie as a vigilante set on avenging her best friend. There’s no denying the writer/director is making a statement on rape culture and toxic masculinity. It’s certainly not a subtle statement, but when it works, it is strikingly effective.
The music helps capture the mood of the film. From the high atmosphere opening in the club to Charli XCX’s “Boys” to the sinister strings of Britney Spear’s “Toxic” igniting Cassie’s rage, this is a soundtrack that certainly won’t be forgotten.
Fennell doesn’t always nail the tonal shifts in the film. One moment this is a revenge thriller, the next it is a romantic comedy, the next a dark drama. The changes in tone are striking and often don’t flow cohesively.
Carrie Mulligan as Cassie in Promising Young Woman. Photo Property of Focus Features
Despite a tonally inconsistent narrative, Carey Mulligan carries this movie. She is one of the best actresses working today. Mulligan is fantastic in this film and could easily generate Oscar buzz. Cassie carries a rage that bubbles at the surface through the entirety of the film, igniting in the tensest moments proving she is not a stable person. However, we can understand why she feels the way she does. Mulligan shows the extremes of the character whether it’s grief or anger. Love or loss. Apathy or Agony. There are certainly times she takes things too far, but Mulligan’s performance is compelling at every turn.
The supporting cast all give memorable performances. Bo Burnham is a standout in the film as Cassie’s old med school acquaintance. His timing is perfect in every scene. He provides some comic relief until his character delves into unexpected territory.
Connie Britton stands out as the dean of Cassie’s med school who could have helped bring Nina’s rapist to justice but has an unfortunately typical “boys will be boys” mentality.
Jennifer Coolidge and Clancy Brown are excellent as Cassie’s parents who want to see their daughter live a normal life.
The first two acts of this film are a compelling look at toxic masculinity and rape culture. Through the lens of Cassie’s character, Emerald Fennell takes a look at the daily misogyny women face. I felt like the film had so much to say about rape survivors being silenced, women not being believed, and belittled. What is marketed as a revenge tale quickly turns into something very different. Unfortunately, the third act completely falls apart. The final thirty minutes of Promising Young Woman are deeply upsetting. The entire message of the movie is thrown out the window. If you are a sexual assault/abuse survivor, you may want to think twice before you watch this. The entirety of the film deals with Cassie tackling rape culture, but the final act is maddening in its depiction of her “revenge.”
There are aspects of Promising Young Woman that I loved and others that I hated. Its got tonal shifts that will make your head spin. This is a stylistically impressive film with a fantastic lead performance. But I simply can’t ignore such an unnecessarily toxic ending.
My Rating: 6/10