On the hunt for sick minds
‘‘ But Cassie isn’t a drunken victim, she’s an avenging angel
PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN 15 ★★★ On NOW and Sky Cinema now
Here’s an unlikely movie to win awards. There are no Nazis, royal palaces or disability-fighting heroes in Emerald Fennell’s double Bafta-winning and five-times Oscar nominated debut.
Instead, the actress-turned-writer/ director has won plaudits with a provocative but far from original, lowbudget rape-revenge fantasy.
But Fennell, who played Camilla in The Crown, has an ace up her sleeve with the hugely talented actress Carey Mulligan. And she uses her brilliantly in a horribly tense opening scene.
We’re in a nightclub with a gang of leery men who spot Mulligan’s seemingly leathered Cassie laying on a sofa.
One of them breaks from the pack and gallantly offers to take her home. Then he makes a worrying suggestion. Would she like to pop into his apartment for a drink?
But Cassie isn’t a drunken victim, she’s an avenging angel. Since her best friend was assaulted at university, the med school dropout has been using her drunken routine to force seemingly nice men to confront their inner rapists.
Mulligan keeps us on Cassie’s side as she goes through the menfolk of her unnamed US town. There’s a vulnerability and a touch of madness about her too.
Sadly, Fennell’s cynical script is far less subtle. As Cassie’s victims stack up, the sermonising begins to grate and credibility flounders.
Could this ruse work for so long in the same city? Are all men sexual predators? Are lawyers who defend men accused of rape legitimate targets?
The disappointing ending raised another question. Before #MeToo, no film in this genre (think Hard Candy and Ms .45) was nominated for a major award, but did they vent their feminist rage in more compelling and provocative ways?