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Being a woman comes with special challenges and expectations—along with dangers and fears and a mile-long list of tips for preventing and defending yourself from things that just shouldn’t be as common as they are. But in the edgy drama Promising Young Woman, one woman decides to take a stand.
Promising Young Woman stars Carey Mulligan as Cassandra Thomas, a troubled young woman who’s still suffering from the trauma of the event that led her to drop out of med school seven years ago. Since then, she’s lived with her parents and worked at a coffee house, and she’s spent her weekends teaching self-proclaimed “perfect gentlemen” her own twisted kind of lesson. But everything changes when she begins dating her former classmate, Ryan (Bo Burnham). As she begins opening herself up to a relationship, he brings back old memories—and a need for vengeance.
Though the story could have been played like a tongue-in-cheek dark comedy, it heads off in a very different direction. Cassandra isn’t just an angry, bitter young woman who’s taking her frustrations out on unsuspecting men. She’s dealing with pain and loss that’s very real.
Everything about this bold and shocking film is disturbing. It’s not just the horrifying event that destroyed lives and set the chain of events into motion. It’s also the cold and callous responses to what happened: the typical “She had it coming,” and “She was asking for it,” and “There’s nothing we could do,” or even “We were just kids.” But it’s also the way in which men react to the baiting that Cassandra does in bars: they see a woman in a weakened state and are quick to justify whatever happens to her. They can say all the right things—tell her that they want to help—yet they try to take advantage of her anyway (only to be shocked and appalled to discover that their inebriated companion is actually perfectly sober).
This skillfully written story takes turns that you won’t expect—and others that you’ll expect while hoping that you’re wrong. And though some of the characters and the lines may be common and even clichéd, they’re also real and honest—and that harsh reality may very well make the film sit like a boulder in the pit of your stomach.
While it’s definitely real and honest and gutsy, Promising Young Woman isn’t an easy film to watch. It’s not just a dark thriller; not just a brainless Friday night movie. It’s the kind that will challenge you and disturb you and leave you feeling like you’ve been punched in the gut.
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