Emerald Fennell’s Misplaced Empowerment

In her film directorial debut, Emerald Fennell manages to have created a heavily stylized, hard-hitting “feminist” film in the form of Promising Young Woman. Starring Carey Mulligan, Promising Young Woman tells the story of the downtrodden and vengeful Cassie Thomas, on a mission to avenge her deceased best-friend Nina following her suicide due to a sexual assault. While the movie promises something cathartic, a stand against the patriarchy and rape culture, it undermines its message in the name of realism, ultimately becoming more traumatizing than anything.

Despite qualms with the messaging of the film, Promising Young Woman is ultimately a good movie, and a must-watch (if you can stomach it). The pastel, bubbly aesthetic of the film juxtaposed with its dark contents is artful and interesting, integrating an inherent reclamation of femininity as a sense of empowerment for the film’s protagonist. Carey Mulligan is captivating as Thomas, and easily one of the most praise-worthy aspects of the film. Thomas is a complex character to portray, a woman who is blunt and witty on the outside, but full of lethal anger. Her actions may be hard to justify or understand at times, but Mulligan makes the audience want to understand, rooting for someone who seems to constantly make frustrating and dangerous decisions.

Fennell also can’t be criticized for her capture of rape culture in our society, something that makes the film so uncomfortable to watch. Nina is an accurate depiction of so many women’s experiences with our systems of justice, her personhood sacrificed for the sake of a man’s future. To many still, rape is not egregious enough to ruin one’s reputation, and a woman’s future is not nearly as valuable as a man’s.

Another interesting decision by Fennell was the seemingly purposeful uses of male actors known for their “likeability” and “harmlessness” in other forms of media. Notably, Thomas’s ex-boyfriend, Ryan (Bo Burnham), is portrayed as one of the “good guys.” He went to medical school with Cassie, in the same classes as her and Nina. The combination of Bo Burnham, a well-known comedian who gives off the aforementioned “harmless” energy, and Ryan’s literal depiction in the movie creates an automatic trust between him and the audience that echoes the feelings of trust many women (and men) feel around these types, and how much more heart-wrenching it is when they break that trust.

What makes the film’s messaging fall flat is Fennell’s somewhat confused tones and attempt at “empowerment” in the film’s conclusion. Out of desire not to spoil the film, the ending can’t be discussed in specific terms, but the conclusion just seems confusing and misguided. The entire film requires a suspension of disbelief that the audience is happy to give in the name of the catharsis that revenge films often give. It doesn't matter that Cassie’s actions aren’t entirely believable in the sense of the real world. They make sense in the movie’s world and for her character development. However, the sudden switch to the stark reality at the end undercuts the previous tone of the movie. It doesn’t have to have a happy ending, but why push something so bleak and harrowing in the name of “realism” after creating a film so unanchored in reality? The ending is even more confusing when it’s presented as some sort of “win” for the protagonist, when in reality it’s a wounding statement about the effects of trauma and the promise of recovery for survivors and their families. Maybe it’s true, and real, and there’s something to be said about the rawness of Fennell’s ending, but it is certainly not the empowering moment she makes it out to be.

Finally, Nina, like many sexual assault survivors in movies, is reduced to a prop. She is a statement, not a real person, who only serves as a catalyst for Cassie’s downfall. The audience never even gets to see Nina, and Cassie takes actions in her name that she never consented to and is implied to have been someone who would oppose this vengefulness, which would be fine if Cassie was recognized in her selfishness, but she’s not. Instead, she is Nina’s hero, despite acting to rectify her own feelings of guilt over Nina’s suicide.

Promising Young Woman is a lot of things. It is entertaining and clever, and it makes powerful statements about our society. The movie doesn’t shy away from a complex female character, a woman who is far from perfect and is allowed to openly experience the more ugly sides of existence that female characters are often shielded from. What it is not, is empowering. In general, rape revenge films are a category of movie that tread more into being traumatizing for victims of sexual assault than providing any comfort, and since that’s the case, what’s the point? These are waters that need to be tread lightly and with due respect, with the line being so fine that it feels almost impossible not to cross it. Fennell didn’t do a horrible job, but rather just proved that the nature of these movies does more harm than good. There’s nothing inherently wrong with showing the brutality of the society we live in and the devaluing of women’s trauma, but to package it as anti-patriarchal and feminist, and a triumph of liberation feels like a misunderstanding of the circumstances of Cassie’s fate.

★★★1/2