As we all begin to gear up for a month of watching holiday movies, there's one film hitting screens on Christmas day that is a little more 'horrific' than 'wholesome'. The film is titled Promising Young Woman, and stars Carey Mulligan who plays a vengeful young woman named Cassie who drops out of medical school after being assaulted, and seeks to find revenge.
Bo Burnham, Laverne Cox, Alison Brie and Connie Britton will star alongside Mulligan, whose life and 'bright future' was derailed after the trauma of her assault. After reporting the crime and not being taken seriously or having justice, Cassie decides to take the fate of her abuser into her own hands. Emerald Fennell, one of the show runners for Phoebe Waller-Bridges “Killing Eve,” wrote and directed Promising Young Woman, which will be Fennell's feature directorial debut. According to Deadline, Fennell based the film's narrative and commentary on assault from her college days, where “all the stuff that went on there, stuff that was completely accepted as normal.”. The film was initially set to hit cinemas in April, but like many other productions this year, was put on hold due to COVID-19.
The film serves as a poignant reminder of the way the justice system is often set up to protect abusers and rapists, and leans heavily on the commentary of consent and the ways women are believed, especially in a post-me too era.
“I really like to play characters who aren’t easy to play on the surface, or take a bit of figuring out, or female characters that aren’t immediately likable or tick all the boxes,” Mulligan told Deadline in an interview. “I read it and I thought, ‘I have no idea how to do it.’ If I read something, and I don’t know how to begin this, that excites me,” She said.
In what looks like a rather dark but still humorous comedy, we're excited to take a look at Fennell's modern representation of a survivor coupled with a comedic lens and narrative, to see whether or not such a serious topic can provide some comedic respite and solidarity. Watch the trailer, below.
