One of the lasting effects of the #MeToo movement is a challenging of the systemic barriers in place for male predators to take advantage of women, consequence free. One of the challenger’s Carrie Mulligan’s Cassandra, turning the movement into a living, breathing, force of nature, hell bent on delivering consequences, one “I’m just a nice guy” at a time. Emerald Fennell’s movie is here to remind everyone, that you can take all those “She was drunk”, “I was young and stupid,” “I’m not that guy anymore,” “What was I supposed to do; I didn’t want to ruin a young man’s life”‘s and shove them right up your hypocritical ass.
When we first meet Mulligan’s Cassandra, she’s on the hunt, impersonating an aloof drunk girl to conduct her little experiment of how deep the lies men have to tell themselves to just admit they want to sleep with a girl at any cost. Her “Bruce Wayne” costume is daytiming as a coffee shop barista. One day, her former med school fellow student Ryan (Bo Burnham) spots her, and tries to ask her out. Cassandra is at first resistant, but Ryan’s charming persona as well as his shared past with Cassandra sees her trying to open up again, which brings with it a reopening of her terrifying traumatic past events as well.
Promising Young Woman will best be remembered as overdue, small catharsis for all those victimized women, cast aside by a society in favor of the men and society they run taking advantage of them. Emerald Fennell’s story takes place in the here and now, but with a more female oriented perspective. Generationally and socially we are split down the middle, with social norms of the past but a more enlightened, empowered female crowd slowly rewriting the rules for a more equal footing. Mulligan is wonderful playing the enigmatic crusader vigilante, donning entcing personas by lecherous men, and then figuratively undressing them as they physically try to undress her. Fennell’s script makes sure she writes in every possible excuse men or people in power throw at her, claiming that they are victims without seeing their own deep hypocrisy. Clearly the sexaul assaulters deserve what’s coming to them, but the movie is particularly brilliant at skewering the complicit. Maybe the best scene is when Mulligan meets with the people in power that protected the misogynistic system, and Cassandra concocts some truly Saw-like situations for some of these people, as they learn their privilege maybe isn’t as boundless as they thought. For any sexual assault victim seeking vengeance for the perpetrators, Promising Young Woman might provide a little, temporary relief from the trauma forced upon you.
With all the justified Time’s Upping of these bad people, the story has less time to dig into the complicated consequences of Cassandra’s traumatic past. The most effective examination is of Cassandra’s personality evolution. She’s so single-minded in her pursuit of justice for what happened, that she’s become a shell of who she was at home. Her mother (Jennifer Coolidge) doesn’t understand her; her father (Clancy Brown) is sympathetic, but also buys her a suitcase for her birthday in a not so subtle reminder to move on. The relationship with Bo Burnham’s Ryan could have given the movie even more arc to Cassandra’s character as she tries to break out of her emotional cocoon, but the script cops out at the last minute. Much like Cassandra, the movie lasers in on revenge, and maybe that’s point. But while revenge can be insta-gratifying, pathos and understanding could have made Promising Young Woman more deeply rich and rewarding, and it’s a mild bummer that Carey Mulligan’s talents couldn’t be extrapolated a little further.
Now, that all of you have listened to my mansplaining of Promising Young Woman 😉, I realize that the best thing I can do here is listen, and help be a part of a better future. I’ll call you an Uber. I’ll call out sexist bullsh*t. If I see something, I’ll say something. I promise I’m a good guy. Damn it! Words are useless now. I have to walk the walk, or suffer the consequences. Now when I go to the club, I’ll be dancing on my own.