Cert: 15
Run time: 113 minutes
Director: Emerald Fennell
Starring: Carey Mulligan, Bo Burnham, Alison Brie, Clancy Brown, Jennifer Coolidge, Laverne Cox, Connie Britton, Chris Lowell, Adam Brody, Max Greenfield, Christopher Mintz-Plasse

Writer and director Emerald Fennell’s Promising Young Woman was originally set to open in the UK back in April 2020. However, a global ‘How can we ruin your life?’ put the film’s release in limbo (it did emerge in the US in December 2020). It finally arrives in the UK via Sky Cinema and NOW. That its release comes just weeks after the disappearance and death of Sarah Everard only makes the film startlingly relevant and timely.

Once a promising young woman, Cassie (Carey Mulligan) was progressing through medical school, only to drop out after her best friend, Nina, was raped. Now approaching thirty, she is living with her parents and working in a coffee shop. After work, Cassie visits bars and nightclubs, pretending to be drunk, because that’s when a ‘nice guy’ will approach and take her back to his place in order to take advantage of her. Before the guy goes all the way in his ‘she’s-so-wasted-so-might-as-well’ fantasy, Cassie turns the tables on her predators.

Amidst her weekly lessons to would-be rapists, Cassie begins dating Ryan (Bo Burnham), a former classmate turned paediatric surgeon. As the relationship blossoms (evidenced by talk of love and buying a bicycle), Ryan just might be the one to help Cassie break out of the routine she’s found herself in. But then one night, Ryan reveals how one of their classmates, Al Monroe (Chris Lowell), is soon to be married, which sets off a whole new series of events for Cassie.

Promising Young Woman isn’t so much a rape-revenge drama, but a tragic dark comedy. During Cassie’s avenging crusade, when faced with those she feels are responsible, she talks to them. Fennell’s meticulous script involves a succession of verbal arguments as characters attempt to win each other over by trying to get the other to see things from their point of view. None of the characters here believe that they are a bad person. Cassie is no saint either. As she tries to get people to accept responsibility for their actions, she is greeted with a list of common excuses (“I didn’t do anything wrong.” “We were kids.”). So Cassie devises a similar experience for them to go through.

When Cassie flips through her diary to mark her latest victim, it’s rather telling when we see that she has been doing this for a very long time. It’s got to be over 400 ‘nice guys’ she’s encountered. That she’s still racking up their names only shows how the taking advantage of drunk women has become a culturally ingrained routine. It is an act that has thrived so as to become just another Friday night. With this in mind, Promising Young Woman proves that Cassie doesn’t have to do a lot to lure in sexual predators. Just pretending to be drunk is enough to put her on their radar. Similarly, in the opening minutes we see Cassie cat-called by a trio of builders as she walks past them. Within seconds this turns to Cassie receiving abuse from the same men.

It’s a little hard to believe that the majority of Cassie’s encounters with men would end with her being able to walk away without harm. Fennell has admitted that a scene was filmed, but cut, in which one of Cassie’s confrontations “had gone wrong”. This would have been worth including to show how Cassie’s actions do also put her in danger.

The film presents a bleakly painful world where almost everyone has a secret dark side. Kindness is a rarity. Respect is almost non-existent. The few exceptions to this include Cassie’s boss Gail (Laverne Cox), and Cassie’s parents (a rather restrained Clancy Brown and Jennifer Coolidge), who respect her privacy enough to not know what she gets up to during her nights out. Alfred Molina appears in a brief but pivotal role as a lawyer. His inclusion serving as a reminder that redemption is possible.

The pastel palette cinematography by Benjamin Kracun is outstanding, often using negative space to isolate Cassie. It hammers home just how alone she is (she even reminds her parents that she has no friends). The candy-coated colours as well as Fennell’s use of pop songs has the film slide into romantic comedy territory for a brief moment (we even get a montage of Cassie and Ryan’s burgeoning relationship played to the sound of Paris Hilton’s Stars are Blind). It all suggests that the characters and proceedings will be sweet, delightful and pleasing, lulling viewers into a false sense of security, for really it’s anything but.

The film is carried brilliantly by Carey Mulligan, skilfully presenting Cassie as welcoming, yet vicious. Sweet one minute, dangerous the next. The misdirection is also helped by the pastel colour theme, which is carried over to the clothes Cassie is wearing during the day (some with cute flower motifs). At night, it’s heavy make-up and clothes with neutral tones. Cassie’s nurse get-up with rainbow wig during the film’s final chapter is sure to become a cosplay fixture at future conventions. During the quieter moments, be it alone when using her laptop, or watching an old video, Mulligan’s expressions convey more than any words.

When it comes to the men, casting the likes of Adam Brody, Chris Lowell, Max Greenfield and Christopher Mintz-Plasse allows Fennell to play with audiences expectations. Viewers will likely know them from roles where they’ve portrayed generally good guys. In this film, their gentleman-like facade doesn’t last very long (at one point, Cassie notes how “gentlemen are sometimes the worst”).

Men are not the only ones on Cassie’s hit-list. She reminisces about past indiscretions with a former classmate, Madison (Alison Brie), who saw Nina’s reported rape as, “crying wolf”. However, a visit to her former university to confront Dean Elizabeth Walker (Connie Britton) is a deliciously tense scene that showcases Cassie’s knack for forward planning, as well as just how unhinged she is.

Viewing the trailers, some may expect the film to build up to the likes of Coralie Fargeat’s Revenge or Natalia Leite’s M.F.A. But what plays out is less I Spit on Your Grave and more I Lecture Your Harassing Ass. It is by no means any less relevant because of this. The conversations that play out capture the zeitgeist and will likely prompt some to re-examine their own behaviour. Holding a dirty pastel coloured mirror up to viewers, Emerald Fennell amplifies the voices that have fallen on deaf ears for so long. Promising Young Woman is a bittersweet social commentary that will be studied and talked about for years to come.

Promising Young Woman is released in the UK via Sky Cinema and NOW on 16 April 2021.