Mulligan stuns in twisty ‘Promising Young Woman’
“Promising Young Woman” is a dark tale of revenge, shot through with black comedy. At every turn, it’s almost too much.
As is the performance by Carey Mulligan. Except that performance turns out to be just right. It’s a no-holds-barred wonder, easily one of the best of the year.
Emerald Fennell, who plays Camilla Parker Bowles in “The Crown” and is the showrunner for the second season of “Killing Eve,” writes and directs her feature debut with a gleeful skewering of expectations. Nothing is what it seems, including Mulligan’s character.
It’s a sugarcoated bitter little pill of a film.
Mulligan plays Cassie. When we first see her, she’s falling-down drunk in a loud club, teetering on the verge of passing out, as a group of guys ogles her. One ( Adam Brody) is a little less predatory than the others and offers to escort her out.
Reminder: All is not as it seems. On every front.
Mulligan’s performance is one of 2020’s best
Cassie, we learn, was a brilliant student who dropped out of medical school. Now she works in a coffee shop. She lives with her parents (Jennifer Coolidge and Clancy Brown), who give her a suitcase for her 30th birthday.
Her mom in particular sees Cassie as one big wasted opportunity, drinking and clubbing her promise away every night.
But Cassie has a plan. I won’t say exactly what it is. The film is filled with twists and
turns, some more successful than others. But it is fair to say that Cassie has scores to settle, a trauma she can’t let go of, a reckoning that she is willing to let play out over time, and she does not care what anyone thinks about her.
Then one day, a medschool classmate comes into the shop for coffee. Ryan (Bo Burnham) is now a pediatric surgeon. What happened to her, he asks? She was the smartest student in their class, and then she left. Cassie is mistrustful, with good reason. But Ryan seems almost perfect – in that he isn’t. He’s nice, he’s smart, he’s funny and he’s self-deprecating.
Alison Brie, Laverne Cox and Connie Britton are part of the terrific cast
Burnham (who directed the wonderful film “Eighth Grade”), with his brainy, laid-back persona, is perfect for the role. Fennell fills the cast with terrific talent: Alison Brie, Christopher MintzPlasse, Connie Britton, Molly Shannon, Laverne Cox and more. Alfred Molina is brilliant in a small but crucial role.
But Mulligan carries the film. The nature of the story allows her to play several shades of her character. Some are sweet, some are funny. But some are ruthless and terrifying, and some are heartbreaking. She nails every one of them.
If this all sounds vague, it’s meant to. You’ll pick up on where it’s all leading, until Fennell drops the floor out from underneath your feet – in a good way, mostly. Fennell’s focus on where the story is going is sharp, even if occasional details and the tonal balance get a little fuzzy. But she is not afraid to take chances, or to push the audience into uncomfortable places, with Mulligan a more-than-willing accomplice in the act.
“Promising Young Woman,” opening in theaters Christmas day, isn’t fun, exactly. Except it kind of is. The people Cassie has in her sights have it coming. But how far is too far? How much is too much? Fennell hasn’t quite figured that out, which makes the film all the more intriguing. Reach Goodykoontz at bill.goodykoontz@ arizonarepublic.com. Facebook: facebook.com /Goodyonfilm. Twitter: @goodyk.