Promising Young Woman — Movie Review
by KJ Proulx
Films that make a statement and are done very well tend to stick with me for a while. Whenever big things happen in the world, movies about those topics are usually not far off. Promising Young Woman is the prime example of a film that very much needed to be made in today's day in age, but I wasn’t expecting it to take things as far as it did. I will absolutely be replaying this film in my head when looking back at my favourite films of 2020. Reflecting on how this film plays out, there are some viewers who will probably hate the outcome of the finale, but I thought it worked very well for the most part. Here’s why I believe Promising Young Woman deserves all the praise it’s receiving.
Haunted by her past, Cassandra (Carey Mulligan) makes it her mission to go after those who are unlucky enough to pop back into her life. For reasons I won’t get into here, these people deserve to be in the spotlight, but this film almost plays out as a fantasy as to what should and shouldn’t be done about this kind of scenario. I thoroughly enjoyed watching Mulligan’s portrayal of Cassandra here, simply because her performance captivated me in ways I haven’t seen in a while. She was both frightening and hilarious all at the same time. Her portrayal alone held my attention for the entire run time.
Take what I’m saying about her character with a grain of salt though because I’m not sure if I felt sympathy for any of the main characters by the end of the film. The way this film chooses to reach its climax felt a little messy to me. I appreciated the message and agreed with it overall, but the way the final moments played out just felt off to me and almost anti-climactic. Still, I found the rest of the movie to be pretty spectacular, so the conclusion was honestly a minor complaint to me.
Emerald Fennell both wrote and directed this film, and for a first feature film, I think she has made it very difficult to improve on her own work here. The statement she makes with this film, along with the razor-sharp subject matter, all tallied up to an incredible experience for me. I really liked the editing by Frédéric Thoraval as well, but I believe the cinematography by Benjamin Kracun was a big reason the editing looked so good as well. This is easily the biggest film he has filmed to date and I can’t wait to see these framing skills continue.
In the end, Promising Young Woman briefly suffers from a conclusion that I’m still unsure about, but am otherwise utterly impressed by. From the second this film began to the moments that made it seem conventional at times, it does a great job in keeping you guessing. Certain aspects of this movie play out as you would expect, but I would check your expectations at the door in terms of where you think the character of Cassandra is going to end up. This movie sucked me in and didn’t let me breathe until the credits rolled. Again, I can’t say it’s perfect due to the ending, but I otherwise think this is one of the finest and most eye-opening films released in 2020. Promising Young Woman is now available on-demand.
Rating: 4.5/5
Check out the trailer below:
