Review of Promising Young Woman (2020) by Jluis_001 — 30 Dec 2020

Promising Young Woman has received quite the praise, calling it a provocative film, and it's funny to read something like that, because considering its feminist message, that very adjective violates its achievements, because it implies that a story like this one, starring a woman, is "provocative." Therefore, it's something out of the ordinary.

And I've gotta say that perhaps a lot of its acclaim comes from the subject itself, but if you look deeply, beneath the surface, this film failed to deliver.

First of all, this is Carey Mulligan' show and I say that because this film is riddled with bad acting.

Her work sustains this film, because her castmates are just not there.

The theme? Incredibly relevant of course: The victimization of women by men who get away with everything, especially for just being men. Even when they're protected by other women.

But unfortunately for its aspirations, Promising Young Woman is far from being the film it thinks it is, and far from being that shocking story it actually believes it is. Let's say if the approach had been horror like '' I Spit On Your Grave '' the film would've gotten the explosive violent factor, but instead it gets stuck in a rape-revenge tale loop, and the punishment is merely the recognition of the fact.

The tone is clearly of dark humor, but no one with the exception of Mulligan seems to believe it, or perhaps they don't have the talent to exploit it, because apparently everything is odd around her, and yet Mulligan's character at no point seemed like a distracted or unfocused person.

She's evidently the victim of a trauma, but the people around her act like she is acting crazy.

Perhaps that's another comment on how victims are usually treated by those close to them, instead of asking them directly what is happening to them.

Unfortunately the path that follows transforms the character in order for the story to work, and consequently transforms her experience into a sort of cool demeanor, and turns her trauma into a joke waiting for the punchline that eventually comes, and she gets her reward, but at a very high price. And that doesn't provide the expected catharsis, because like I said, the tone feels comical. The fact that its ending made me laugh at the actions of some of the characters says a lot about it, because it looks and feels like the ending of Cruel Intentions, I only missed Bittersweet Symphony in the soundtrack.

It didn't seem like a disaster to me, but I'm wondering what the critics who are calling it one of the best films of this year saw, because if this is among the best, then 2020 was worse than I imagined.