Direction: Emerald Fennell
Country: UK / USA
Promising Young Woman marks the feature directorial debut of English actress turned director Emerald Fennell. This hybridized solution of rape revenge thriller and eruptive romance works pretty well thanks to a top-tier performance by Carey Mulligan (An Education, 2009; Suffragette, 2015; Never Let Me Go, 2010). She is Cassie, a 30-year-old medical school quitter who has been living in grief since she lost her best friend, a victim of rape while drunk at a school party.
Having no social life whatsoever aside from working in a small cafe during the day is a source of deep concern to her parents with whom she lives for seven years. Notwithstanding, she keeps secret her high-risk night-time activity, even further when Dr. Ryan Cooper (Bo Burnham), a former classmate who always had a crush on her, appears out of nowhere to infuse some hope in her inconsolable life.
Expertly written and stringently executed, the film flows effortlessly within a well-mounted narrative structure; things only tremble in the very last chapter. Symbolizing the indignation of all women who had to deal with the torments of extreme sexism, Mulligan exhibits a previously unseen range of talent. Although this isn’t the best movie that could have been made about the subject, it’s invariably entertaining, filled with interesting moments en route to an unorthodox ending.
