TW: Article contains mentions of rape and sexual assault.
Promising Young Woman desperately tries to scale the wall into feminism. This “delicious take on revenge” or so the marketing team calls it, should leave the viewer strengthened and empowered. Instead, the film left me on the ground in its failed attempt to capture any semblance of empowerment.
The film revolves around Cassie (Carrey Mulligan), who after serving beverages and pastries as a barista, spends her nights feigning gullibility to observe which predatory scoundrels view her as an opportunity. All these prospective assailants are replicas of Al Monroe (Chris Lowell) who raped Cassie’s best friend Nina while they were in medical school, resulting in Cassie dropping out in the wake of Nina’s death. Cassie spends her subsequent adulthood on a crusade to provide justice and closure to the loss of her best friend. Though her actions initially take on a powerful tone, Cassie soon becomes helpless as her life has been devoured by this cause, stripping her of her sense of self.
The lack of understanding especially from the two other prominent female characters, Cassie’s college friend Madison McPhee (Alison Brie) and the university dean Elizabeth Walker (Clancy Brown), is disheartening. Rather than listen to Cassie’s pleas, both are vicious enablers of the patriarchy who either join in the sadistic banter regarding Nina’s rape or prioritize Al’s future over Nina’s safety.
Cassie is never allotted comfort and peace. When Cassie is finally given the opportunity to open up to another college classmate and now-boyfriend, Ryan Murphy (Bo Burnham), about what happened, she’s confronted with Ryan’s confession that he was a cherry onlooker in Nina’s assault.
The film’s purpose is to function as a mirror. It wants the viewer to contemplate the complexities of the patriarchy and how various people, regardless of their age, gender, and status often uphold it, even to their detriment. Unfortunately, as her agency is stripped away, Cassie becomes a vessel for this cautionary tale.
Cassie never receives the love and support she needs to process the tragedy, so she assumes she can fix her trauma on her own. Everyone has failed Cassie, leaving her angry and vulnerable. Rather than ever finding justice, Cassie’s character exists in fragments surrounded by the death of a loved one. While this portrayal of Cassie may be a realistic reflection of the lack of consequences issued to men and the burden placed on women, the ending of Promising Young Women detracts from this painful reality.
Cassie’s final act of revenge comes from a place of exhaustion. Cassie’s actions lead Al to murder her and he is taken into police custody. Yet, it’s unfortunate that Cassie sacrifices herself to place bets on a system that has consistently failed her. Even though Al’s future behind bars is cast in concrete in the film, this is a highly unrealistic ending, as men like him are often given the benefit of the doubt and are supplied with enough resources to escape accountability not only to the judiciary system but towards the victim.
Promising Young Woman sets out to portray a lesson. The culture surrounding sexual assault is deadly and sometimes, even women will gladly enable toxic male behavior to fit the structure in place that prioritizes male well-being. As director and writer Emerald Fennell sought to bring this story to life, she willingly sacrificed Cassie’s wellness and stability in an archetypal portrayal of the “madwoman.” Cassie, on a run from her past, enacts revenge on evildoers instead of being given the time to properly grieve and find fullness within herself. While Promising Young Woman does a good job of portraying the detrimental effects of victim-blaming and rape culture, it does so through the mental health of Cassie, and never wields the needed consequences on Al. Promising Young Woman failed to make it clear that the responsibility of justice should not be shouldered on female victims.
