Promising Young Woman
Year: 2020
Rating: R
Length: 113 minutes / 1.88 hours
There was a time when a movie like Promising Young Woman (2020) couldn’t be made because it deals with a difficult subject. However, in the wake of the #metoo movement, the narrative has shifted and allowed space for this eye-opening masterpiece to exist. Rape is never an easy topic to cover, but Promising Young Woman handles it with such blunt-force precision as to make itself required viewing, despite being difficult to watch. If it makes you mad, you should check to make sure it’s making you mad for the right reasons.
Of course, this film wouldn’t work were it not for the excellent performance of Carey Mulligan. Mulligan has come a long way as an actress since An Education (2009). Her worn-out and tired portrayal of Cassie Thomas captures the essence of a woman who has made it her personal mission to teach men everywhere about consent. Equally strong performances from Bo Burnham and Alison Brie merely help to accentuate how solid Mulligan’s acting is in this movie. Some may claim the deadpan acting is easy to pull off, but this context demands such an emotionless response that it couldn’t have been done any other way without lessening its message.
In the end, the message of Promising Young Woman speaks the loudest. Every excuse in the book is dragged out into harsh daylight to show how ridiculous they are. This is almost Monte Cristo levels of revenge here to show that, until rape happens to someone you love or care about, the weak excuses thrown about always protect those at fault and have no empathy for the victim of this heinous crime. The fact that Promising Young Woman goes to the lengths it does to debunk these claims should make us all think twice before denying justice for the victims of rape.
A difficult but necessary destruction of the excuses of lack of consent, I give Promising Young Woman 4.5 stars out of 5.
1/2
