A couple weeks ago I went to the movie theatres for the first time in a very long time. The darkness of the theatre surrounded me and the grandiose of the silver screen captivated me all over again, as if it was my first time. The movie I saw left me in tears and with a feeling of deep rage, but also deep understanding. I was liberated, I was resigned. The movie I saw was Promising Young Woman, a contender for Best Picture at this years Oscars. Do I think it will win the Oscar? Sadly, no. Do I think that everyone should go see it? Definitely yes. To me what makes this film incredible is its penultimate, disturbing yet vindicating ending. Now before I get into the ending I will briefly get into the rest of the plot. The film centers around Cassandra, who is traumatized by the past of a closet's friends sexual assault and death, and seeks vengeance against those who crossed her path. The film starts off showing Cassie getting fake super drunk at a club and waiting to see what "nice" guy will take her home. However, as the film questions is there really any "nice" guy? And night after night of faking drunk the men that take Cassie home blur the lines of drunkness and consent. But right when the men try to take it too far Cassie shows them how actually stone cold sober she is and berates them for what they claim they were not going to do with a, clearly and what they thought to be, very drunk girl. In this way the film raises the questions around consent and what society teaches not only young women but young men as well. That these are the men who think themselves to be the pillars of society and good people, but behind closed doors they are the predators and the sexual assaulters. They are taught by society that because they are "good" young men they couldn't possibly be bad, even if they really are.
Here, Promising Young Woman offers more food for though and raises more questions than it is willing to go on the attack and make a clear statement about the actual wrongs of society. The whole film seems to toe the line of its potential, almost coming through on the rage and wrath that it brings up and is about but never quite reaching it. That is, right until the ending I would say. The end, which left me in tears and with my heart pounding, is executed ruthlessly. In both a good and bad way. I do not want to give any spoilers, but the ending is truly what the whole film is leading up to. It is the feeling of that final woosh as a roller coaster rolls to a stop after the last, biggest final drop. It ends with the only reality that could have seemingly could have been for Cassie, our main character, to ever find peace and solace in a life that has treated her terribly and people around her, men and women, that have done nothing but gaslight and withhold the truth from her. Deny her reality and the reality of so many women around her. The ending is both freeing and devastating due to the lengths that have to be gone to in order for the truth to come out.
In this way, the ending of Promising Young Woman, heavily reminds me of the ending to Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? In both endings the main characters, women pushed to the edges of their sanity by society and the men around them, are forced to reconcile with the lies around them. They are both women who have been traumatized by the men in their life and society and in order to gain peace they need to come to terms with their own grief and truth, even if it comes at the cost of the heartache of breaking down the lies and walls that have been built around them.
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