PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN, US, 2020. Starring Carey Mulligan, Bo Burnham, Clancy Brown, Jennifer Coolidge, Laverne Cox, Alison Brie, Adam Brody, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Connie Britton, Molly Shannon, Max Greenfield, Chris Lowell. Directed by Emerald Fennell. 113 minutes, Rated MA (Strong coarse language and violence).
The title sounds enthusiastic – even promising. But, we quickly learn the title is ironic. And we have to ask to whom the title refers, Cassie (a surprisingly spirited – yet at times subdued) Carey Mulligan, or does it refer to her dead friend and fellow-student, Nina? Or both?
The posters for the film urging everyone to see it, declare that it is a must-see film from 2020, that contributes to the #MeToo campaign. And, it does, but certainly not in the ways that we might have been anticipating.
Cassie was promising when she was young. She was a medical student, as was Nina. However, at Nina’s death, she dropped out, living at home with her rather bewildered parents (Clancy Brown and Jennifer Coolidge), mother desperately hoping that you will meet some nice man… She works at a small diner, supported amicably by the owner, Laverne Cox, but rather listless.
Then we discover that she has an alternate life, out on the prowl at nightclubs, various seductive techniques to entice eager men to take her home, initially letting them take advantage of her – and then . . .
So, what makes Cassie tick? She broods on the memory of Nina – Nina’s brutal rape by a frat group with other students urging them on, not defending Nina at all. Vengeance makes Cassie tick.
However, her vindictiveness meets something of a challenge when she encounters a student-friend from the past who admires her. He is now a paediatric doctor, Ryan, played by Bo Burnham. He is attracted. He is respectful. He even goes to dinner at home with Cassie’s parents. Will this break the cycle?
What is preoccupying Cassie is that one of the students involved in the rape has now returned to the US and is planning to marry. She sets up a lunch date with another former student, Madison (Alison Brie) challenges her about the past and ultimately receives a video of the vicious occasion.
This ignites the vengeance again – and the rest of the film is the fulfilment of Cassie’s plan and vengeful aims. Not exactly as we might have expected, some ugly reminders of the Bro-mentality, complicit in its sexism, thoughtless and ruthless in its exploitation and violence. And, some malicious delight on the part of the audience at the final expose. But, we leave the cinema pondering on Cassie, the promising young woman, mission accomplished, but at what cost?
The film was written and directed by British actress Emerald Fennell (Camilla Parker Bowles in The Crown), who wrote a number of episodes of Killing Eve.
Universal
Released 7 January
Peter Malone MSC is an associate Jesuit Media