"Promising Young Woman" is a thought-provoking and impactful film directed by Emerald Fennell, released in 2020. The movie garnered widespread critical acclaim and was nominated for several awards, including multiple Academy Award nominations.
It is a dark and timely thriller that tackles important themes such as sexual assault, consent, and revenge. The film follows the story of Cassie, played brilliantly by Carey Mulligan, a woman who is haunted by a traumatic event in her past and takes matters into her own hands by pretending to be intoxicated and luring predatory men into uncomfortable confrontations.
"Promising Young Woman" is not an easy film to watch, as it confronts uncomfortable truths about rape culture and the justice system's failures. It challenges viewers to reevaluate their attitudes and behaviors, making it a relevant and necessary addition to the conversation surrounding sexual assault and consent.
From here on, we will just focus on specific elements of the movie that stirred my thoughts and kept me up all night. For a full experience, I would highly recommend everyone to watch the movie.
The movie helps bring a lot of things into perspective that we tend to overlook in everyday life. It showcases how people’s mentality can be so messed up. It’s a tangled web of dark human consciousness. And we often don’t realize how many people around us are that way until it’s too late.
It brings up that in general the focus of all wrongdoings is on men, but at the same time, the harm a woman brings upon another woman is so much worse. Slut-shaming, name-calling, backbiting, and all the ridiculing unleashed upon a woman by another does irreparable damage. The movie very well shows that in the form of an unsupportive friend and the dean, a female herself, who dismisses the charges against the perpetrator and takes the situation extremely lightly.
Another major theme that stood out to me was the aspect that you can’t undo your past, nor can you rewrite it. And sometimes people don’t change. Here a contrast can be drawn between the lawyer and Ryan, the boyfriend. The lawyer is deep in regret and repents for the acts committed by him years ago, and in return, she decides to forgive him. But it’s a whole different story with Ryan.
The cute, loving boyfriend who we all began to pine for. This can be marked as one of the major plot twists in the story. But even after all the revelation, we still had hope. He was young, it was a mistake. And he just let us all down.
Upon confrontation, he seems to regret his actions and apologizes, but when things take a turn for the worse and he doesn’t get what he wants, he becomes defensive at first and attacks later. He reveals his true colors which is a huge blow to the audience. It makes you wonder, how much do you know about someone?