Promising Young Woman

Hello, hello!
I finally found the time to review the movie everybody and their grandma have been talking about since the first trailer dropped. To be fair, I have been beyond curious to see Promising Young Woman ever since that first glimpse. So, let’s get talking!

The Plot (as found on Rotten Tomatoes):

Nothing in Cassie’s life is what it appears to be — she’s wickedly smart, tantalizingly cunning, and she’s living a secret double life by night. Now, an unexpected encounter is about to give Cassie a chance to right the wrongs from the past.

Promising Young Woman on RT

The Rating:

Oh my, where to begin?

I know opinions on this movie are very mixed – people seem to either love or hate it. No in-between. I for my part enjoyed it a lot. It’s not a perfect film, but it was very intriguing and quite different from your usual (revenge) flicks. Everything I need to discuss that’s spoilers is under the *read more* cut!

Before we get into the nitty gritty details, I want to give a big ass shoutout to Carey Mulligan who gave a tremendous performance. I’m glad she got recognition for it, as she was nominated for numerous awards. She’s, however, not the only cast-member that deserves praise. The cast list is superb and everybody delivered here.

Emerald Fennell really surprised with her directional debut and for with this screenplay. I think one of the most intriguing things about the film is that you can tell it was made by a woman. How certain things are prortraied, what is shown on screen, and what is not. The vibe is just different.

So, to the details. One thing I have in terms of criticism is that the story doesn’t always make 100% sense. But then again, Cassie’s is already past the no-return so it’s kind of on point that not everything she does makes sense. Some of her actions are just so weird and it’s hard to follow her logic in that sense. For example, when she talks to the Dean and lets her believe that she did something horrible to her daughter. Why would you do that? How can you justify that? I mean, I get that she holds so much resentment towards her but still, that’s bringing in somebody (her daughter) who is completely innocent – which defeats the whole purpose.

What I liked is how the movie showed things are not only black and white. That is especially the case when Cassie starts falling for this new guy. He appears to be really nice and just a good person. But deep down, how good are any of us really? Nobody is perfect. And I completely understand why Cassie lost her shit over that. I don’t even want to get into a discussion on that front but, let’s just leave it at ‘seriously fucked up’. Even Cassie who is trying to avenge her friend is dong many very questionable things, so is she a good person?

I think the most important part of this movie is that it makes you think. What I’ve read in some reviews is that people complained the movie isn’t chathartic due to the end Cassie meets. But do movies always have to be cathartic? Real life doesn’t awlays provide us with happy ends either. I’m not saying that I love how the film played out in the end – or even that 100% of it made sense, but it was an interesting choice and I’m not mad about it.

All in all this is a movie that comes with flaws but I found it fascinating and thought proviking. The performances and cinematography are so great, they can easily tide you over some little irregularities in the script. Definitely a recommendation from my part!

Did you watch the film? Let me know in the comments!

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