I was looking forward to Emerald Fennell's directing debut, "Promising Young Woman," and very receptive to its revenge story premise. However, I found it a difficult film to love because it's so prickly and has far more on its mind than revenge.
Taking aim at toxic male entitlement, our heroine is the self-destructive, ex-med student Cassie Thomas, who we first encounter playing drunk at a bar to entrap the "nice guys" who are all too willing to take her home and take advantage of her. Cassie has much bigger fish to fry, however, and the film follows her efforts to enact an elaborate revenge scheme on those she holds responsible for the sexual assault, and subsequent public shaming and demise of her best friend Nina. Targets include a former classmate, Madison (Alison Brie), the dean of their school, Elizabeth Walker (Connie Britton), and of course the main perpetrator, Al Monroe (Chris Lowell). Complicating Cassie's plans is the reappearance of Ryan (Bo Burnham) in her life, an old friend with genuine romantic feelings for her.
"Promising Young Woman" is deceptively cheery looking, with its candy-colored production design, and Cassie's habit of dressing up in eye-popping outfits for her various outings. However, the revenge that Cassie enacts is only fun to watch up until a point. Sure, it's satisfying to see her give the hypocrites a taste of their own medicine, and force the self-deluded to face the consequences of their behavior, but at the same time it takes a terrible toll on Cassie. The loss of Nina wrecked her life, causing her to drop out of school and take a menial job in a local cafe. Her parents (Jennifer Coolidge, Clancy Brown) are supportive, but they've also clearly had enough, not so subtly gifting her with luggage for her thirtieth birthday. Cassie's interactions with Ryan show deep emotional scars and daunting self-defense mechanisms. She's rude and acerbic on a good day, and retaliates ten-fold when crossed. And yet, we root for her because she has her limits, and her vengeance is often so richly deserved. The title is a reference to rapist Brock Turner, who was described as a "promising young man" by the judge when he was handed a lenient sentence.
The messaging here is loud and clear, but I like the various ways in which Fennell subverts the usual revenge narrative to help get the point across. The material may be pure pulp, but the execution is far more measured. First, the scumbags that Cassie targets are all played by sweet-faced boy-next-door types like Adam Brody, Chris Lowell, and Christopher Mintz-Plasse. Cassie is very smart, but makes mistakes and bad calls. In one case, where she comes across an intended victim who is truly remorseful and regrets what he did, she has no idea how to react. I appreciate that few of Cassie's plots involve much direct violence, leaving the most gratuitous content offscreen. When violence does occur, it's ugly and realistic. Cassie's anger also wreaks as much destruction on herself as on anyone else, and her ultimate fate makes it clear that this kind of revenge is neither heroic nor admirable in any sense.
I find myself comparing "Promising Young Woman" to "Joker," not just because Cassie looks an awful lot like Harley Quinn in one of her getups, but because both films rely so heavily on their central performances, and often function better as character studies of people suffering from trauma and mental illness. I was very surprised to find Carey Mulligan playing Cassie, because she almost never takes on these kinds of genre roles, but like Joaquin Phoenix as Arthur Fleck, she does such a fantastic job of relaying the immense pain and rage that animate Cassie, hidden behind her deadpan demeanor and unnerving directness.
I admire the film very much, but it's raw and sad in a way that I don't think I was quite ready for. Kudos to Emerald Fennell for delivering the unexpected, and Mulligan for taking a chance with this role. The film only works as well as it does because of their efforts.
---
No comments:
Post a Comment