Republished from the show notes of my other site, Fuds on Film.
Carey Mulligan’s Cassie Thomas leads an unconventional life, a disillusioned coffee shop worker by day, and a To Catch A Predator honey trap by night. Masquerading as hopelessly drunk she allows Ohio’s selection of “nice guys” to help her get home whereupon they invariably attempt to parlay that into date rape, at which point she can spring a gotcha, although I feel there ought to be some further step involved beyond pointing out the hypocrisy and peacing out. Seems like a dangerous hobby.
But why do this? Glad you asked. Turns out it’s largely a response to the sexual assault suffered by her friend Nina when they were at med school, the trauma from which caused Nina to drop out and Cassie to follow suit to care for her, although she did eventually commit suicide after the crime was not taken seriously and brushed under the carpet.
This all resurfaces when an old med school friend, Bo Burnham’s Ryan Cooper, walks into the coffee shop, and a relationship begins. However, when Cassie realises that one of the perpetrators of Nina’s gang rape is about to get married, she hatches a scheme for revenge.
I found Promising Young Woman to be an uncomfortable and not particularly rewarding watch, not just because of the subject matter. My main problem was an inconsistent tone, and I’m not sure whether that’s by design or accident. It bounces around between dark comedy, straight drama and slasher flick so often that the whiplash very much detracts from the film.
Similarly the lauded performance of Mulligan, which I’m also not sure if I can decide whether its a really great, subtle piece of work, or a piece of something else entirely. When she’s being, well, a normal human being in the relationship with Ryan she seems, well, human, but I’m not convinced by her turn as a nihilistic wage slave or as a cunning femme fatale.
All that puts me rather off balance, which I suppose is the point of the film, but I think it’s getting there through its intended route. I don’t dislike the general concept of the film though, and there’s a good, modern update on a grindhouse genre staple in here somewhere, but for my money, not quite in this iteration.
Ultimately it’s not something I’d recommend, although I’m sure a lot of people will get much more out of it.