What Promising Young Woman Means to Us
What struck me most during my first viewing of Promising Young Woman was the idea that even the “nice guys” can engage in pretty bad behavior. It’s pretty easy to watch a movie with characters who are obviously morally objectionable and reign judgment on their awful actions. It becomes much more difficult when a movie holds a mirror up to you and lets you know that you are indeed part of the problem that you insist on eradicating. A movie that can challenge you can become an extremely gratifying experience if you allow it to. I’m glad I gave Promising Young Woman that chance. It’s a film that’s opened my eyes so much and one I’m eternally grateful for existing.
–Raf Stitt
There’s a scene in Promising Young Woman when a man tells the protagonist, Cassie, that being accused of rape is every man’s worst nightmare. “Can you guess what a woman’s worst nightmare is?” Cassie responds. I can relate to this movie on a personal level; I have two sisters that I worry about daily. I always wonder if they made it to their destination on time or who might have run into them while out at night. I also love the symbolism in the film, such as a scene with Cassandra framed with a round decoration directly behind her, encircling her head like a crown. This framing establishes her as a queen or angel, demonstrating the respect she deserves. There’s also another similar angel symbolism later with Cassie’s bed headrest standing in as angel wings. The twists and turns make this a thrilling way to explore the unfortunate reality women face daily.
–Madi Holmes
Superhero Style
It’s no surprise that DC tapped Emerald Fennell to write and direct a Zatanna film, as Promising Young Woman often feels like it could fit within the DC brand. When the protagonist Cassandra (Carey Mulligan) transforms her image to come off as a drunk clubbing girl, she evokes Joker when she smears her red lipstick across her face approvingly in the mirror. Her exaggerated neon looks often draw on the appearance of Joker or Harley Quinn.
During her mission, she more resembles an antihero like Punisher, as her life is consumed with punishing the system that allowed her friend, Nina, to be raped without consequences. The difference is that Cassie doesn’t seem to be killing the men she lures in, but instead destroys their illusions of innocence by causing them to reflect on their actions.
But there’s another way in which Cassie operates more akin to a classic superhero: balancing an alter ego against a secretive vigilante life. Like many iterations of Batman, “Cassie” appears to be similar to Bruce Wayne—a kind of alter ego on autopilot that exists only to support the continuation of her nighttime ritual. We first meet Cassie in her “hero” form, although she doesn’t have a “name” for this identity—at least not early in the movie. Not that the guys trying to take advantage of her ever ask, as evidenced in one such encounter.
Once we meet “Cassie,” it is clear she is completely disconnected from her everyday life. She lives with her parents and works a dead-end job at a coffee shop. At one point, she even forgets her own birthday.
This begins to change when her former med school classmate Ryan (Bo Burnham) enters the picture and slowly begins to bring back a focus on Cassie’s “normal” life. During the movie’s second act, a series of events triggers Cassie to fully embrace her everyday identity, effectively “throwing away the mask” and setting her vigilantism aside. But when evidence comes forward linking Ryan to Nina’s rape, we see for the first time the two identities merge into one. Cassie appears at Ryan’s office without all the makeup and transformation we have seen previously, but very much in that same role. With her burgeoning romance destroyed, there is nothing left for “Cassie” to live for.
When she goes to confront Al Munroe, the man who raped Nina, he finally asks her what her name is. “Nina,” she replies. In fact, throughout the movie, Cassie has been wearing one half of a friendship necklace bearing Nina’s name. In retrospect, it’s practically a superhero emblem, and she is not just reaping revenge for her friend, she is practically embodying her spirit.
A Promising Young Director
No stranger to the screen, finding acting roles in movies including The Danish Girl and Pan, Fennell has also found success as a novelist and in July 2018 was tapped to take over as head writer on the acclaimed BBC spy thriller Killing Eve, earning her Primetime Emmy nominations. In October 2018, Fennell landed the role of Camila Shand in Netflix’s The Crown, which brought her another Primetime Emmy nomination, this time as a supporting actress.
But Promising Young Woman was Fennel’s first breakthrough to the silver screen, with her writing, directing, and producing the film. While her sophomore directorial feat Saltburn missed out on Oscar love, her directorial debut received five nominations. Few first-time feature filmmakers can hope to see their film even get an Oscar nomination, but Fennell herself garnered three nominations, walking away with the award for Best Original Screenplay while being nominated for Best Picture and Best Director.
If Fennell was a hot name before the success of Promising Young Woman, the film’s success only took her expectations to new heights. And props also have to be given to Mulligan, who received an Oscar nomination herself for her performance as Cassie, who I think should have gone home with the trophy that year.
The Nice Guys
As Promising Young Woman focuses on Cassie luring several men into taking her home to test whether they would attempt to molest her, Fennell specifically focused on casting actors known for playing likable roles in previous films and shows; for instance, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, who played Fogell (McLovin) in Superbad, and Max Greenfield, the ever-charming roommate on New Girl. Fennell even told the actors to envision themselves “as the hero in a romantic comedy.”
“If you’re going to make a movie about good people doing bad things, [you want people that] you instantly trust. We like them. Sam Richardson, Adam Brody, these are people that we all feel fondly towards and are totally crushable,” Fennell told GQ. “It helps to make the audience complicit a little bit, too, because this is a movie about people’s allegiances and how complicated things get when it happens in a friendship group… it happens to a girl who maybe is a party animal, and the guy involved is maybe a really nice guy. That’s where the conversation gets complicated.”
And then there’s Burnham as Cassie’s former classmate Ryan, who looks like he just might turn the tide and be an actual nice guy. Burnham’s easygoing presence only makes it that much more disturbing when the movie reveals later that Ryan had been present when Cassie’s best friend Nina had been raped, eventually leading to her suicide.
A Controversial Ending
Almost everyone I’ve seen who says they disliked this movie places most of the blame squarely on the ending. When Cassie arrives at Al Munroe’s bachelor party, she handcuffs him to a bed, drugs all of the other attendees and insinuates she is about to carve the name “Nina” all over his body as revenge for his name “being all over her” after he raped her.
But instead of a typical revenge thriller ending, Cassie never gets to see this revenge through, as Munroe breaks one of the handcuffs and ultimately smothers Cassie to death with a pillow. At first, it looks like the men are going to once again get away with everything. The police visit Ryan, giving him an opportunity to do the right thing and share information that he knew Cassie was headed to Munroe’s bachelor party; but he doesn’t, as that would reveal his involvement in things.
But Cassie had contingencies—she sent evidence of Nina’s assault and her own probable murder beforehand to a repentant lawyer (Alfred Molina) and scheduled texts to Ryan timed perfectly with Munroe’s wedding. The texts warn Ryan that “this isn’t over” and simultaneously, police roll up to Munroe’s wedding to arrest him for murder.
Many people have voiced disappointment in Cassie’s death, which is only natural since, despite her sometimes over-the-line methods, Cassie is ultimately a victim bringing a sense of justice. But as we discussed earlier, Cassie had basically already died with Ryan’s betrayal—Cassie’s transformation at that point was less a merger of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and more of a complete takeover of the latter. If Cassie had survived the encounter with Munroe, she would have either gone to jail for life, or if she somehow remained free, would have nothing left to live for.
It also works as one last smug “gotcha” from beyond the grave, giving the boys one last time they thought they got away with it, only to reveal that they had actually put themselves in greater trouble.
What are your thoughts on Promising Young Woman? Share them with us in the comments!