Butler's Cinema Scene

Carey Mulligan

“PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN” My rating: B+ (Theaters Christmas Day)

113 minutes | MPAA rating: R

A heady mashup of female revenge melodrama,  black comedy and ruthless personality study, “Promising Young Woman” will leave audiences laughing, wincing and infuriated.

Writer/director Emerald Fennell (also an actress, she plays Camilla Parker Bowles in the current season of Netflix’s “The Crown”) displays such a firm command of her medium that it’s hard to believe this is her first feature.

When we first see Cassie Thomas (Carey Mulligan) she is slumped splayed legged on a leather bench in a noisy dance club. A twentysomeything guy (Adam Brody) accepts a dare from his  friends to rescue this drunken damsel from her vulnerable position.  He gives her a ride back to his house, pushes more drink on her, deposits her on his bed more or less unconscious, and proceeds to pull down her panties.

And then she sits up, totally sober, and asks him just what the hell he thinks he’s doing.

This, we learn, is Cassie’s M.O.  She pretends to be wasted, allows some jerk to get her in a compromising position, and then forces him to confront his own creepiness.

Funny how quickly a guy can turn from lust to panic.

Fennell’s screenplay carefully rations its revelations as it follows several narrative paths.

In one Cassandra continues her vengeful quest, choosing as her targets not only random predatory men (she has an apparently inexhaustible wardrobe of come-hither fashions, wigs and makeup) but also individuals who were involved in an sexual assault scandal dating back to her college years. Among those who run afoul of her fiendish (though not usually violent) machinations are a college dean (Connie Britton), an old classmate (Alison Brie) and a lawyer (an uncredited Alfred Molina) whose specialty is defending men charged with sex crimes.

Turns out our heroine is really good at dreaming up Fu Manchu-level sadism.  You gotta wonder if she’s a genuinely psycho.

Carey Mulligan, Bo Burnham

Then there’s her  everyday life.  At age 30 Cassie still lives with her clueless suburban parents (Jennifer Coolidge, Clancy Brown) and works in a coffee shop for a simpatico boss (Laverne Cox) who wonders why someone so promising is so dead set against getting ahead in life. There she meets Ryan (Bo Burnham), a pediatrician with whom she attended med school before dropping out. Ryan is so geekily sincere in his adoration of Cassandra that she can’t help but respond. Apparently he’s the first man in years to warm her hard little heart.

The big question, of course, is what happened to turn Cassie into an avenging feminist angel. We hear talk of a childhood friend, Nina, who apparently is no longer among us. And of a dreadful event that so traumatized our heroine that she dropped out of school and turned to the dark side. There’s buzz over the return to town of a  classmate  (Chris Lowell) whose pre-nuptial bachelor party promises to be a swinging affair.

What’s remarkable about this directing debut is the way Fennel can turn her story on a dime and segue effortlessly from one mood to another. Some may be tempted to applaud Cassie’s crusade…at least until she does something shockingly  cruel. By the same token, we hearten to the Cassie-Ryan love story…until a revelation that makes us wonder if there are any good men left.

Mulligan is quite extraordinary here.  She gets to play bitter, sexy, savage, damaged, desperate and determined…and slips in and out of these personas as easily as she changes disguises.

| Robert W.Butler