Promising Young Woman (2020)

Promising Young Woman (2020)

6/10

Starring

Carey Mulligan

Bo Burnham

Alison Brie

Clancy Brown

Directed by Emerald Fennell

This movie ended in a very surprising way. Promising Young Woman is a dark movie that promises to be comedic, but it doesn’t quite deliver on that front. I did enjoy the movie for the most part, though I felt at times it dragged a little. There was much more the writers could have made Cassie do when it came to getting even with the people responsible for ruining her friend Nina’s life. I felt the writers were a little too focused on trying to be realistic— a little more I Spit On Your Grave female anger would have done the trick for me.

It’s a safe movie to watch when not much else is happening on screen, but you may hit parts that bore you, so it’s best to watch this movie with the remote in hand to skip past the unneeded dialogue.

Acting-wise, I felt everyone did their best in what I would classify as a B-movie cast.

The movie starts with the introduction to Cassie (Carey Mulligan) and her style of getting back at men. She acts drunk at clubs, someone takes her home, and when they try to take advantage of her in her drunken state, she flips the switch. Here’s where the movie leaves me at a loss for words—she’s small in comparison to the men she’s with, and I have no clue how she gets over on them.

Anyways, she continues these acts, and we see that she has put her life on pause because of the death of her friend Nina. We come to understand that Nina, her friend, was raped numerous times at a party while she was passed out drunk. The incident ruined Nina, and she had to drop out of school. Her life spiraled downward, which eventually led to her death. Cassie was the friend who stood by her and watched her life get ruined by the incident, and she’s been dreaming of getting even with everyone involved.

She meets a former classmate, Ryan, who has feelings for her and isn’t going to give up until he wins her over. Through Ryan, she finds the inspiration to go after everyone involved—from the Dean who did nothing to the lawyer who defended the man who did it, Al.

The movie ended in a way I wouldn’t have planned for her, and I guess if it had ended with her running away from it all and starting over somewhere else, that would have been classier.