Promising Young Woman
Carey Mulligan stars in PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN. (Photo: Focus Features)
An uncompromising empowerment fantasy for the #MeToo era, Promising Young Woman is a blistering examination of sexual violence that fearlessly maximizes the discomfort.
Such audacity, along with a ferocious lead performance by Carey Mulligan, drives this subversive combination of romantic comedy and revenge thriller that hits its targets, satirical and otherwise.
The opening sequence sets an appropriately unsettling tone: Cassie (Mulligan) appears to be passed out drunk in a bar, so a well-dressed man offers to take her home, takes advantage of the situation, and gets the tables turned by our resilient heroine.
The unstable Cassie has been repeating that script for months as a method of coping with a traumatic incident from her past. She’s also nearing her 30th birthday with nothing significant to show for it.
While working as a barista, Cassie runs into Ryan (Bo Burnham), an old classmate who’s now a successful pediatric surgeon. As they begin a courtship, we sense this might be Cassie’s path to happiness.
However, as details are revealed about her past, Cassie obsesses over the need for closure. She can’t shake lingering feelings of guilt and regret that caused her to drop out of medical school after an attack on her best friend. So she schemes a grand plan for vigilante retribution against the perpetrator, now a successful lawyer about to be married, along with his enablers and apologists.
The film’s title could just as easily describe rookie filmmaker Emerald Fennell, who peppers her debut with style and attitude while transitioning smoothly between broader comedy and character-driven psychodrama.
Fennell’s screenplay only hints at a deeper exploration of contemporary gender politics, but just like Cassie, it’s not afraid to take risks. The film’s confrontational nature intentionally is shocking and disturbing. And just when you think it’s settling into a more familiar comedic framework or redemption arc, it shifts gears again.
British actress Mulligan (An Education) offers a fully committed portrayal that modulates Cassie’s external rage and bitter cynicism with her internal vulnerability. She assisted by a stellar supporting ensemble.
More provocative than predictable, Promising Young Woman challenges conventional sympathies by asking tough questions — about the burden of responsibility and adult consequences for teenage indiscretions — without clear-cut answers. That makes the film sometimes difficult to digest, but even tougher to dismiss.
Rated R, 113 minutes.