Review: Promising Young Woman

Image courtesy of Focus Features.

You've probably seen this person before - slumped over at a bar after having had too much to drink, and your immediate thought is, "Will this person be able to get home safely?" At least, that should be your immediate thought, but there are those with darker instincts. 

Emerald Fennell's "Promising Young Woman" might lead you into believing it's a modern take on "Looking for Mr. Goodbar," but you'll soon see that this razor-sharp thriller and (sort of) comedy has much more on its mind. This is a movie containing scenes that go from hilarity to horror in a matter of seconds, but Fennell makes the transitions feel organic - its intent is to keep you on your toes.

In the film, Carey Mulligan plays Cassandra, a once promising medical student who works at a coffee shop and lives with her parents at age 30. She appears to not have much motivation in life other than the revenge she metes out on a weekly basis to creeps who take home women who are too drunk to resist them for the purpose of having nonconsensual sex with them.

In the film's opening scene, Cassandra gets taken home by a young man pretending to be a "nice guy" who will help her get home. But in the cab ride they're sharing, he changes gears and gets her to come to his apartment, where he then tries to put the moves on a seemingly drunk-to-the-point-of-passing-out Cassandra. When she asks, completely sober, what he's doing, he's shocked and has no explanation for his behavior, other than that he thought they had a "vibe."

She repeats this process until she finds new purpose after a seemingly nice guy with whom she went to school and now works as a pediatrician wanders into her coffee shop. They flirt and she kinda likes him, and eventually goes out on a date with him. Their romance blooms, but she also finds out in the process that he's connected to a number of people with whom she went to medical school, where seemingly something awful happened years before and prompted her to drop out.

Cassandra, reminded of the past, comes up with a list of past acquaintances from medical school against whom she bears a grudge and tracks them down with the purpose of making them squirm - or worse. As it turns out, her best friend from school was gang raped during a party in which a bunch of frat boys watched and laughed - and everyone from the school's dean (Connie Britton) and fellow students (including one played by Alison Brie) to a lawyer (Alfred Molina) who has since grown a conscience played a part in covering it up.

"Promising Young Woman" is a righteously angry thriller that often veers into dark comedy, but always aims to make its audience uncomfortable. I mean this as a compliment. There have been a number of #MeToo movies in recent years - such as 2020's critically acclaimed "The Assistant" - but this one is among the sharpest and gutsiest.  

Mulligan gives one of her finest performances as Cassandra, a woman whose character is often framed in the film as the villain - it doesn't recognize her as such, but the way specific scenes are shot, it makes her look like one and those she torments like the victim, until you suddenly realize that the roles are reversed - and she carries what struck me as a challenging role with apparent ease.

There are several twists in the film - one foreseen by me, which doesn't prevent it from still feeling like a gut punch, and one I didn't see - but in the case of this picture, they add to the film rather than come off as gimmicky storytelling devices. This is a mainstream movie that has something rather urgent to say, and for a first feature it's surprisingly assured. The director of "Promising Young Woman" is undoubtedly one herself.