How ‘Promising Young Woman’ plays with our expectations
When we’re introduced to Cassie, she’s dead already. We just don’t know it yet.
Emerald Fennell’s directorial debut, Promising Young Woman, is perfectly crafted to play with our expectations. It tests our understanding, as an audience, of basic film language, societal norms, and false truths, which is why it’s been so successful in creating such varied yet strong reactions.
The film’s protagonist Cassie (Carey Mulligan) hides in plain sight: she works as a barista at a coffee shop, wears pink clothes, and has long, blonde hair with perfect bangs. In an interview with The Atlantic, Fennell said that Cassie looks the way the world wants women to look, “which is pretty and soft and pink. But underneath it all is a boiling pit of rage.” This is also a metaphor for the entire film as its bubblegum aesthetics and pop soundtrack make it visually and sonically appealing to audiences, “because, like Cassie, it’s a trap. So it needs to look like the thing it’s not, like she does.” The use of juxtaposition throughout the film is another reason that caused people to have strong reactions to the sucker punch ending. It was like a trojan horse and we were all misled by the film’s language.
THE BOILING PIT OF RAGE
At night, Cassie dresses up and acts black-out drunk, luring in nice guys who want to take care of her before trying to rape her. As part of her performance, she eventually reveals her sobriety with a sudden shock to the men who always feel mortified and humiliated. This is how Cassie chooses to handle the rage bubbling up inside her, which stems from the rape and subsequent suicide of her best friend Nina seven years prior. The pair dropped out of med school after the incident and Cassie’s life remains entrenched in trauma and grief. She lives in her childhood bedroom, forgets her 30th birthday, and doesn’t have any real friends. Ultimatley, Promising Young Woman isn’t a rape-revenge tale, it’s a story about about trauma and grief as Cassie cannot get over what happened to her best friend. It’s like what happened to Nina happened to Cassie herself.
We never get to know who Cassie was before and we never get to meet Nina either. Cassie’s mother, played by Jennifer Coolidge, says, “All my friends ask about you. I don’t know what to tell them. I don’t know what happened here.” Later on, her dad says, “We’ve missed [Nina], but God, we’ve really missed you.” This comment really shows just how much Nina’s assault and death has taken over Cassie’s entire being. “I’m just trying to fix it,” Cassie says to Nina’s mother (Molly Shannon), who tells Cassie that she can’t fix it and to stop being a child because it’s not good for either of them. “Cassie, move on. Please. For all of us.” But she can’t. It has consumed her to the point of no return. Cassie is lost and she is never back.
It’s hard to comment on Promising Young Woman without mentioning the amazing rape-revenge film MFA (2017), which also comments on societal expectations surrounding rape. The protagonist, Noelle (Francesca Eastwood), kills her roommate Skye’s (Leah McKendrick, who also wrote the film) rapist once she learns about him. This was against Skye’s wishes, because Noelle thought every survivor would want revenge and in this way, but not all do. This dredged up so many traumatic memories for Skye that it caused her to take her own life. This is something very disturbing and upsetting that both of these films convey — that rape can have so much of an impact on someone’s life that they kill themselves because of it. Ultimately, though, MFA arguably gets this message across more successfully and bluntly because, while Skye and Noelle are both survivors of sexual assault, they handle it differently, and we see them on-screen, whereas we don’t see Nina in Promising Young Woman. She haunts the film and its protagonist, but has no voice of her own.
THE VIGILANTE
Most of us grow up thinking that the justice system works and bad people get what’s coming to them. One day, we learn that bad things happen to good people, good things happen to bad people, and the justice system fails. This revelation knocks most of us side-ways, and is most prevalent in cases of rape and sexual assault. This is typically because evidence is hard to acquire, but it can fail even when evidence is provided. Another large issue, evidence or not, is that many still cannot comprehend how psychologically damaging being raped is, and so they side with the “promising young man,” instead of the promising young woman.
Cassie knew that the justice system wouldn’t deliver, so she took matters into her own hands by teaching men about consent by using unconventional methods that put herself in danger. Cassie also makes people suffer in other ways, still in the pursuit of revenge. No one believed Nina — not Deans, friends, or lawyers — so Cassie gives them a taste of the fear Nina felt, scaring the Dean into thinking her daughter might have been taken advantage of by drunk frat boys, until Cassie reveals that her daughter isn’t in danger at all, because she is lucky and doesn’t have as much faith in boys as the Dean seemed to at the start of their conversation.
WEAPONISING THE NICE GUY
The men in Promising Young Woman are all likeable men — until they aren’t. Fennell makes sure to highlight the statistic that sexual assaults are more likely committed by people we know. According to RAINN, perpetrators of sexual violence often know the victim. From their statistics, they worked out that “8 out of 10 rapes are committed by someone known to the victim.” Only 19.5% are committed by a stranger. News, films, and television often put forward the idea that sexual assaults and violent acts are carried out by random strangers lurking in back alleyways. Promising Young Woman subverts and challenges these expectations by using highly recognisable “good guy” actors, which is an absolutley brilliant casting decision. Adam Brody (The O.C.), Sam Richardson (Veep), Christopher Mintz-Plasse (Superbad), Max Greenfield (New Girl), Chris Lowell (GLOW), and Bo Burnham (comedian and writer/director of Eighth Grade) are all loveable, quirky, nerdy, charming, and trustworthy types. They’re the embodiment of The Nice Guy. However, Promising Young Woman tells us that it could be anyone, including The Nice Guy — especially The Nice Guy. Almost all of the male characters in Promising Young Woman are rapists, enablers of rapists, or are likely to rape at some point. Despite this, the film reminds us that men tend to go unpunished. Even the defence lawyer admitted to getting off hundreds of rapists and was rewarded for doing so, though he later regrets his actions and is deeply remorseful.
At the time of the film’s release, there were so many comments online from men thinking that Promising Young Woman painted men in a bad light, because they still cannot come to terms with the idea that people who commit these violent acts are often just like them, rather than hideous strangers with a few screws missing. To try and understand people who do bad things, we often distance ourselves from them by calling them otherworldly terms like “evil” and “barbaric.” In reality, they are as human as any of us, but we’re scared of believing that we have the capacity for the same violence, so we decide there must be something inherently “wrong” and “other” about them. We dehumanise, when the reality is that, to many girls and women across the world: it could be you. During the film’s opening scene, a man says “they put themselves in danger, girls [who are wasted]. If she’s not careful, someone’s gonna take advantage —especially the kind of guys in this club.” Little did he know, that kind of guy was his very coworker.
Why does Cassie humiliate the men who were about to rape her, rather than kill them? Aside from the obvious issues associated with murder, being embarrassed seems to be something that these men absolutely cannot stand to experience — especially when it’s because of an incident like this, one that catches their true nature. These men are always playing a fine line between sex and rape, which they seem fine with as long as it remains behind closed doors. They cannot stand it when someone threatens their reality of being The Nice Guy. There is a reason why the phrases “not all men” and “I can’t do anything these days” come up a lot when women speak on the importance of consent.
There’s a scene where one of Cassie’s nightly humiliation schemes is interrupted by Ryan (Burnham) running into her. After he darts off, Cassie warns her victim that she isn’t the only person who does this and the man says that they take the fun out of everything. It brings up the same question: what fun exactly? Because there is a difference between “scoring easily” and taking advantage of a drunk woman to the point of rape. Lots of men either can’t tell the difference, or they simply don’t care to. And that’s why they now feel under threat when women talk about unblurring the lines of consent so these men can learn the difference. However, many still see this as a personal attack on their freedom. What freedom exactly? Sounds like the freedom to have power and control over women they deem vulnerable.
GENRE BENDING WHILE DRENCHED IN FEMININITY
Promising Young Woman was marketed as a rape-revenge thriller with splashes of dark comedy. This was cleverly crafted to draw people in so their expectations should be shattered by the film’s devastating climax, which creates an important discussion. The film weaponises the rom-com genre to further mess with our expectations and comments on rape culture from a very female perspective within the female gaze. This isn’t a horror film, it’s women’s lives. Promising Young Woman cycles through many genres, but ultimately settles into a black comedy and thriller.
The film’s opening sets the tone right away. To the sound of Charli XCX’s “Boys,” a playful electropop anthem about having beautiful boys on the brain, businessmen are blowing off steam in a nightclub after a hard day’s work. They make crass comments on the culture they find themselves in when they see a drunk Cassie. When one tries to take advantage of Cassie, she reveals her sobriety, and then the film cuts to its title card. The next shot is Cassie’s “walk of shame” home, starting at her legs as the camera moves up, showing what looks like blood but is soon revealed to be ketchup from her breakfast. This segment hints at what Cassie is capable of, letting us associate her with bloodthirst, but it could also be foreshadowing at her demise: she will be the dead one. It also lets us know quickly that this film is a dark comedy. It appeals to our love of 2000s culture, which could be seen as light and playful, but it contains serious themes.
At night, what Cassie wears depends on her chosen mission. In production notes, Fennell wrote: “One night [Cassie] could be a beautiful, gorgeous hipster, one night she could be a woman who’s just come from the office and had one too many; and one night she’s in a classic body conscious, Kardashian dress. She’s careful to be egalitarian when it comes to choosing her marks, I guess.” Cassie’s pink and feminine clothing during the day completely juxtapose how she feels internally: depressed and stuck. Costume designer Nancy Steiner says, “You wouldn’t necessarily expect that, which I like as it’s a twist. Looking back on it, it feels like really in Cassie’s real life, she was also wearing costumes.” Cassie’s clothes are a kind of armour that makes her non-threatening. “She just looks like a sweet girl,” Steiner continues. “There’s a cheery thing to a floral print and the pinks and pastels. So nobody asks her questions, like if she’s depressed or how she’s feeling.” Originally, Steiner and Fennell desired a ’60s-inspired Brigitte Bardot aesthetic for Cassie, which evolved into a more contemporary take on the blonde bombshell.
The costume, set design, and soundtrack perfectly complement one another throughout the film as it continues to play with femininity and darker themes. One stand-out scene is when Ryan and Cassie perform a karaoke rendition of Paris Hilton’s “Stars Are Blind” in a pharmacy. It’s 2006 bop which speaks to women (and gay men) specifically. “You would immediately love any man that knew every word to that song,” Fennell told The Hollywood Reporter. This scene also gives Cassie relief, albeit temporarily, from her depression. Ryan seems like the perfect guy, so when Cassie discovers he was in the video of Nina’s rape and didn’t try to stop it, and he’s still friends with Nina’s rapist and will be attending his wedding, it’s incredibly disappointing, but perhaps not surprising. The film also includes a cover of Britney Spears’ “Toxic” and an original song called “Last Laugh” written by Fletcher, amongst others.
THE SHOCK OF REALITY
Promising Young Woman reminds us that revenge and justice — surrounding sexual assault specifically — is a fantasy for women, and so rape-revenge films subvert this reality to give women a form of much-needed catharsis. Fennell’s script seems like it’s going this way throughout the film, but then it plays with our expectations by subverting this trope, reminding us of the soul-crushing reality that women generally do not get justice or justice. Sure, Cassie does get revenge and justice, but at what cost? No amount of righteous rage or careful planning saved her from going up against a man. When Cassie dies, this is a huge shock considering its rare that a film kills off its own protagonist. We briefly think The Bad Guy has won, but this trope gets subverted when the rape video is released and he’s arrested for Cassie’s murder. When Cassie speaks from the grave in a voiceover narration to confirm these details, it’s an exciting gotcha moment, but it’s also shocking and even harrowing.
While bleak, one could argue that Cassie fulfilled her destiny. She was depressed and wanted to be reunited with Nina. She never recovered from the trauma of Nina‘s death, just has Nina never recovered from being raped. While Cassie hoped that systematically taking down Nina’s antagonists would help her move past her own trauma, those men couldn’t do that for her. Only Cassie could make the decision to choose to move forward. It’s comforting living in your trauma because it’s much harder to consider what would happen if you survived and accepted a new reality. Cassie was always putting herself into dangerous situations because she lacked any regard for her own safety. She knew the risks. Avenging Nina was her life’s true purpose and she died in order to achieve it. It’s an incredibly dark twist as Fennell still allows for the fantasy of The Bad Guy getting what’s coming to him, but only if the protagonist sacrifices herself to do it — it’s more plausible that he would be arrested for murdering a woman than raping one, even if there is evidence for both.
A large number of people hated Promising Young Woman because Cassie died, which is completely understandable. It’s gut-wrenching. Fennell took a huge risk in playing around with the conventions of the rape-revenge genre in order to create a deep and powerful examination of society’s role in rape culture. Whether or not it works depends on you. It’s a film that has had people torn since its release, including survivors; some who still feel an empowered sense of catharsis, and others who feel like this film told them that they don’t matter. In MFA, Noelle gets revenge for Skye, who then kills herself. In Promising Young Woman, Cassie gets revenge for Nina, but Nina is already dead, and Cassie died while trying to achieve it. These devastating situations show that everyone’s situation is unique, but still impactful. While the victim is the most important, the film explores the reach of rape’s devastation in how it creates pain and loss beyond them.
Originally written in early 2021 with editing in December 2023.
