Review: ‘Promising Young Woman’
Equal parts heartbreaking and hilarious, Promising Young Woman is an audacious, unapologetic and wholly original directorial debut from Emerald Fennell with a powerful performance from Carey Mulligan at its center.
The journey to Promising Young Woman has been anything but smooth. From reports of fights breaking out during the film’s test screenings (as relayed by director Emerald Fennell) to a largely divisive response after its Sundance premiere (a Twitter thread relaying and criticizing the events of the film’s ending went viral not long after the screening) to its derailed theatrical release due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it has been a long and winding road for Fennell and co. But eight months after its initially scheduled release date, the film is finally here.
Promising Young Woman centers on Cassie (Carey Mulligan), a college dropout working as a barista at a local coffee shop. Aimless, and still living with her parents, Cassie has no friends or acquaintances, other than her boss Gail (Laverne Cox). But Cassie has a secret. At night, she heads out to clubs and pretends to be drunk in an attempt to pick up possible predators and confront them in an effort to dissuade them from ever preying on vulnerable women ever again. A wrench is thrown into Cassie’s nightly routine when she stumbles upon charming old classmate Ryan (Bo Burnham) who she soon starts to embark on a relationship with. As their relationships becomes more and more serious, Cassie soon finds herself having to choose between Ryan and her nightly routine that soon threatens to destroy her newfound relationship.
It is hard not to draw direct parallels between the film and the allegations against a certain Supreme Court Associate Justice, as the film charts the fallout from a similar situation, and it wouldn’t be such a stretch to believe that this film was written in response to the horrible mistreatment of Christine Blasey Ford by the Senate Judiciary Committee and the media back in 2018. A powerful monologue delivered by Mulligan in the film’s third act that laments the loss of a young woman’s reputation and autonomy in light of a devastating accusation perfectly mirrors the experiences of Ford, a renowned college professor and psychologist who will forever have her experience associated to her name while the accused roams around scot-free. Through an incredibly sharp script and a bright, colorful visual flare that is both at odds and oddly complementary of the film’s dark subject matter, Fennell has managed to create one of the most important films of the past few years that also serves as a perfect encapsulation of a certain time period that, thanks to the efforts of a fearless group of people, is hopefully on the brink of change.
Mulligan is an absolute delight as the witty and sarcastic Cassie, delivering biting one-liners and double-handed niceties to potential customers at the trendy coffee shop that she works at. But Cassie also has a darker side to her, one that has developed through years of unfortunate experiences and tragic circumstances, and Mulligan proves that she is able to juggle both aspects of Cassie perfectly, alternating between the charming and charismatic girl she once was, and the tough and jaded woman she was forced to become in a way that feels both visceral and fully fleshed out. With a career chock full of impeccable performances, this may be Mulligan’s best and most nuanced yet.
Burnham is disarmingly charismatic as pediatrician Dr. Ryan Cooper in his first film appearance in three years, turning in a warm and surprisingly layered performance that will make audiences fall in love with him right alongside Cassie. His charming demeanor and easygoing attitude, however, soon dissipate to make way for a shockingly complex third act arc that Burnham is able to successfully pull off with equal measure. Elsewhere, Cox, Jennifer Coolidge and Clancy Brown (the latter two cast as Cassie’s frustrated parents) are all serviceable in slightly underwritten roles while Alison Brie, Connie Britton and Chris Lowell come close to stealing the show with their brief yet electrifying turns as figures from Cassie’s mysterious and shadowy past.
Much has been made about the film’s devastating third act and rightfully so; it is a haunting, incredibly complex and unforgettable sequence of events painstakingly portrayed in real time that will undoubtedly and understandably affect some viewers more than others. It is an ending that was designed to start conversations, not provide answers, a tactic that has proven to be successful; Promising Young Woman has managed to consistently stay a frequent topic of conversation in film spaces almost a year after its initial premiere date at Sundance and it wouldn’t be surprising to see it remain in those spaces for another year as well.
Regardless of how you feel about its divisive ending, Promising Young Woman manages to raise a series of important and extremely relevant questions about everything from campus culture to toxic masculinity to the responsibility that should be shouldered by passersby and witnesses to a brutal crime. It is the type of smart, daring and completely original filmmaking that we don’t get much of anymore, and an audacious directorial debut from Emerald Fennell that is just as unapologetic as its lead character.
Rating: 5/5
Promising Young Woman will be released in theaters on December 25.