Thirty-year-old Cassie was a “promising young woman” until the inadequate response to her best friend’s rape caused her to drop out of medical school. Now, she lives a double life. By day she works at a cafe, and at night she goes to clubs pretending to be precariously drunk until a “nice guy” offers to take her home. As they try to take advantage of her, she reveals her sobriety to their chagrin — though the form her revenge takes is often left unseen. She repeats this scheme every weekend until an unexpected encounter forces her to confront her past.
“Promising Young Woman” is a revenge thriller, a rom-com and a mystery all at once — an overall spectacular film directorial debut from Emerald Fennell. The writing is sharp and the banter is witty. Carrie Mulligan dazzles, embodying the feisty Cassie with grace; she garnered an Oscar nomination for Best Actress along the way.
“Promising Young Woman” attacks rape culture, dismantling commonly held beliefs about victim blaming and the idea of “nice guys” always being harmless. Through sometimes twisted means, Cassie lets characters confront their hypocrisies about rape and the role of bystanders. She is a nuanced protagonist — a strong-willed and clever woman who is not afraid to lie and manipulate to achieve her goals. Even so, she remains an empathetic and emotional individual struggling with grief, identity and love.
Beyond Mulligan, the ensemble cast featuring Bo Burnham, Jennifer Coolidge, Connie Britton, Laverne Cox and Alison Brie, is excellent. Many of the male actors, such as Max Greenfield of “New Girl” fame, Christopher Mintz-Plasse from “Superbad” and Adam Brody of “Gilmore Girls” are famous for playing harmless, lovable boyfriends in comedies. In “Promising Young Woman,” though, they take on more sinister roles, flipping our preconceptions about who may be a sexual predator.
The production design and costuming is decadent. Cassie is often decked out in pink sweaters, pastel bows and candy-colored nail polish. The colorful neon backgrounds and the pop soundtrack, which features Paris Hilton and Britney Spears, clash with the movie’s horrifying and sometimes nauseating subject matter. Some have criticized the film for having an uneven tone, but I think the juxtaposition of genres works well here. Fennell keeps us guessing, with some of the most shocking plot twists I’ve seen in film.
No spoilers here, but the ending of the movie is both unexpected and unsettling. My blood ran cold while watching the last 20 minutes, and I kept wondering where the conclusion was going. The provocative finale is satisfying yet surprising, and it has continued to linger with me long after the final fade to black.
This is not a warm, feel-good film; rather, it forces viewers to sit with the disturbing realities of sexual violence and patriarchal norms in our society. “Promising Young Woman” is not preachy but instead a gripping, timely and thoroughly entertaining movie that subverts the standards of a revenge thriller.
“It’s every man’s worst nightmare, getting accused like that!” a character says at one point.
“Can you guess what every woman’s worst nightmare is?” retorts Cassie. Although fictional, the universe of “Promising Young Woman” has more in common with our reality than we might like to admit.
Charlie Keohane ’24 (she/her) is an Editor at Large. She previously served as the SGA Correspondent and a Senior Writer.
She is an environmental writing major and a psychology minor from Northern California. Outside of academics, Charlie is a Senior Admissions Fellow at the Middlebury Admissions Office. She also is involved with the women’s track team and hosts Witching Hour, a radio show on 91.1 WRMC. In Spring 2023, she studied abroad in Copenhagen, Denmark. In her free time, she enjoys hiking, watching Greta Gerwig movies, polar plunging, sending snail mail, and FaceTiming her rescue dog, Poppy.
