Promising Young Woman review: A haunting satire on society’s culpability in enabling sexual assault

4/5

Story:

Cassandra (Carey Mulligan), a medical school dropout who works at a coffee shop, moonlights as a vigilante threatening sexual predators by disguising herself as a helpless woman. It is revealed that her crusade stemmed from her desire to seek justice for her best friend Nina, who was sexually assaulted at medical school.

Review:

Director Emerald Fennell is not a novice when it comes to writing strong female characters. She is credited with scripting several episodes of the critically acclaimed British television series Killing Eve. But unlike Villanelle (Jodie Comer) in Killing Eve, Carey Mulligan’s Cassandra or Cassie is not written as a strong character, who is defined by a streak of violence. In fact, some of the most popular female protagonists such as The Bride (Uma Thurman) in Kill Bill, Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) in Alien, Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) in Terminator 2: Judgement Day, are all defined by their strength in adversity and are action heroines.

Cassie is not a swashbuckling, gun-toting, sword-wielding action star, but a depressed woman mourning the loss of her best friend. She is a woman raging at a society that enables sexual misconduct, and one that turns a blind eye towards those pleading for help. One would imagine Fennell, the director, and cinematographer Benjamin Kracun would have used darker or greyer colour schemes as part of the narrative to highlight Cassie's mental makeup. However, the filmmakers have gone for something truly unconventional in terms of aesthetics.

The scenes are filled with vibrant colours, with biblical visual allegory scattered throughout the film. The filmmakers have also inverted popular film tropes, whilst also paying homage to popular films and their characters to offer viewers a false sense of familiarity. In fact, even the choice of casting certain actors who have portrayed popular lovable characters, such as Alison Brie who played Annie in Community, Christopher Mintz-Plasse as Fogell in Superbad, Max Greenfield as Schmidt in New Girl and Chris Lowell as Bash in Glow, is a clever plot device to make these inherently sadistic characters appear likeable. In effect, this highlights the flaws in how films and television shows have depicted sexual predators and those who enable them. These lovable characters are a far cry from the stereotypical bad guys, and it forces the viewers to introspect their own moral compass.

The narrative is structured in a way that conveys the message that redemption can only be attained through self-realisation. Alfred Molina’s character embodies this message and this character is also used as a conduit to emphasise how the system is biased in favour of the abusers. Other characters such as Madison, played by Alison Brie, and Ryan, played by Bo Burnham, exemplify the idea that self-preservation trumps ethics and morality. Connie Britton’s portrayal of Dean Walker symbolises society’s deliberate ignorance towards sexual abuse unless their personal lives are affected in some capacity.

From a technical perspective, the music, the visuals and the references to renaissance art are used to depict Cassie’s tragic struggle in her pursuit of justice for her friend Nina. The fact that the details of what exactly happened to Nina are never revealed to the audience and that there’s no face attached to her name symbolises how society is quick to forget victims of sexual assault. The title of the film is a critique of various real-life court proceedings where male college students, accused of sexual abuse, were pardoned on the grounds that they were ‘promising young men’. Through this film, the writers ask a pertinent question, ‘But what about the promising young women?’.

Verdict:

Promising Young Woman is a genre-defining film that navigates through several complex issues surrounding sexual abuse and society’s complicity.