Since the first trailer dropped, Promising Young Woman has generated conversation. From Anthony Willis' stunning violin cover of Britney Spears' "Toxic," to Carey Mulligan's captivating and terrifying performance as Cassie, to the supporting cast (which consists of familiar "nice guy" actors from teen shows and movies released in the last 15 years), Promising Young Woman seemingly has all the right ingredients.
Unfortunately, the recipe fails -- namely because, like so many rape-revenge fantasies before it, Promising Young Woman is less a tale of dismantling a violent, oppressive system than it is a tale of one woman's martyrdom to teach viewers a lesson they should already know.
Promising Young Woman follows Cassie Thomas (Mulligan), a 20-something barista who dropped out of medical school after her best friend, Nina, was raped. Nina later commits suicide and Cassie takes it upon herself to both get vengeance for her friend and teach predatory men a lesson.
Each week, she dresses up and goes to a different club, where she acts like she's too drunk to stand up, let alone get herself home. Every time, a self-proclaimed nice guy approaches to ask if she's OK and offer to get her home safely.
Instead, they change direction and take her back to their homes, where they inevitably try to force drugs or alcohol on her, then rape her. Cassie waits until these men show their true colors and then reveals that she's sober. It seems to give her a thrill, but beyond that, it seems to be a cheap attempt to fill a void left by Nina's death.
Cassie actively puts herself in danger by going home with these men -- even if she is stone-cold sober -- and at no point does she ever seem to prioritize her safety over this mission she's taken it upon herself to complete.
Things only get more complicated when she starts dating Ryan (Bo Burnham), one of her former classmates from medical school. Suddenly, Cassie's trauma bubbles back to the surface and her mission to convince men not to rape dulls in comparison to a different purpose: Punishing the people who let Nina's rapist go unpunished.
This is where Promising Young Woman begins to veer off course. On the one hand, the movie examines all of the insidious behaviors of rape culture: Rape apologists, “nice guys,” guys who lie to the cops to protect their friends, guys who act like their mistakes “as kids” shouldn’t impact their adult lives (they were in med school, they were hardly “kids”) and women who don’t want to ruin mens’ futures, but will jump at the opportunity to point fingers when they or someone they love has been assaulted.
Promising Young Woman also examines how, when predators are taken to task, their first instinct is to beg for mercy because they “did nothing wrong,” but their second instinct is to exhibit even worse violence. It explores how good ol’ boys will protect their rapist friends because they don’t think women have value. This movie understands rape culture and how everything -- especially the judiciary system -- upholds and perpetuates it.
That's why it's so baffling that by the end of the movie, Cassie has martyred herself to stop just a handful of would-be and actual predators from hurting anyone else. Obviously, this has value, as saving even one or two victims is a matter of literal life and death for those people.
However, since the movie does such an amazing job examining each horrifying tier of the structures that maintain rape culture's hold, it's hard to swallow just how horribly it fails to give Cassie, Nina or any of the people in their lives any actual justice.
The ending of Promising Young Woman, in many ways, feels inevitable. That inevitability is what makes the ending feel so pointedly hateful and intensely violent. It doesn't exactly unravel the work done throughout the rest of the film, but it does paint Cassie's entire story in a different light. She's whip-smart, clever and slightly unhinged -- and she deserves so much better than what she gets.
Spoiler Warning: Several scenes in Promising Young Woman may be triggering for survivors of sexual or gendered violence, including rape and physical assault.
Promising Young Woman is directed, written and co-produced by Emerald Fennell and stars Carey Mulligan, Bo Burnham, Alison Brie, Clancy Brown, Jennifer Coolidge, Connie Britton and Laverne Cox. The film premiered at Sundance Film Festival in January and is scheduled for theatrical release on Dec. 25 from Focus Features.
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