— A critique paper by Deborah Jei D. Cataluna
tw // mention of rape, sexual assault, suicide
Emerald Fennell's feature directorial debut, Promising Young Woman, is a 2020 black comedic thriller film she wrote, produced, and directed. It had its global premiere on January 25, 2020, at the Sundance Film Festival, and was distributed theatrically in the United States on December 25, 2020. The movie mainly focuses on Cassie, a young woman, still struggling from the trauma of her best friend's sexual assault and suicide. She was a victim of a system that favored the assaulter over the accuser. Cassie is determined to deconstruct the system one enabler at a time.
Cassie's former med school classmate, Al Monroe, had raped her best friend and classmate, Nina Fisher, years earlier; despite this, there had been no investigation by the school or legal penalties. This then resulted to her best friend's suicide. Cassie now spends her nights at clubs luring men and as they take her to their homes, and try to take advantage of her, she reveals her sobriety and confronts them. Cassie starts dating Ryan, an old classmate who informs her that Al is getting married. She devises a strategy to seek vengeance on Al and others who helped him get away with the rape. When Cassie gets her hands on an old phone with the video of Nina's rape, she notices Ryan as a bystander while watching it. She threatens him to make the video public unless he tells her where Al's bachelor party is being held. Cassie enters dressed as a stripper at Al's bachelor party, drugs Al's friends, and takes Al upstairs. She ties him up in a bed and introduces herself as Nina Fisher, Al is taken back and ultimately recognizes Cassie as Nina's best friend. He becomes agitated and insists that he done nothing wrong. He breaks free and suffocates her with a pillow as she begins carving Nina's name onto Al's stomach. Al's friend discovers him handcuffed next to Cassie's body the next morning. His friend helps him in the burning of Cassie's body. An investigation was launched after her parents submit a missing person report. Ryan receives many pre-scheduled texts from Cassie at Al's wedding celebration, informing him that things are not finished. It was then revealed that before the incident, Cassie sent Al's former lawyer, a package with the video of the rape as well as information on where the authorities should look if she goes missing. Ryan then stands there and watches as police arrive at the wedding celebration and arrest Al for murder. Cassie's final text to Ryan is signed "Cassie & Nina," and it tells him to "enjoy the wedding."
Promising Young Woman represents what happens when someone intentionally refuses to live with reality. Cassie often takes calculated risks and vows revenge against the rapist and everyone involved, even if it was from beyond the grave. Nonetheless, Cassie still didn't feel any better even after turning the tables on Madison, the school dean, and the lawyer — who turns out to be the only one who expresses genuine regret for failing Nina. Although if we think about it, these all root from our system's incapacity to give justice to whom they failed and society's inability to properly address consent and assault against women. And as a result, closure is seen to be a vague feeling that is difficult to establish. Perhaps there's no such thing as complete closure in this situation.
Cassie's dangerous mission in the first part of the movie exists to make everyone in the audience feel very uncomfortable — to provoke uneasy feelings and the not all men topic. This film surely made people question whether there are men who are genuinely 'nice guys' who are willing to help or do they all have the same intention. And it might even spark the fear for some people which could make them avoid such situations because of the fear of looking like a predator. In some cases, men who assault even claim to be 'nice guys' but are unaware of the harm they caused. These conversations can be seen as boldly provocative, however, at the same time, timely and necessary because these are on going problems that should be acknowledged and shouldn't be ignored.
At the end of the film, Cassie, in a sense, was able to reclaim some authority in her life. I, on the other hand, would have wanted more for Cassie and Nina. They weren't able to fully get the justice they deserved and live the life they wanted. However, at the end of the day, the goal of this film was to start a conversation about sexual harassment, victim-blaming and to address the internalized misogyny present in the film. This is why men, in particular, should watch the film and consider how they can be a better ally in difficult times.
This film is certainly not everyone's cup of tea, however, it is an important one. This film takes a close look at what occurs when sexual assault allegations or rape are dismissed. This is a difficult film to watch, but I believe it will establish a new standard for how films about similar topics are handled in the future.
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