She’s So...Adorable, Dangerous, Tragic, To Die For...
She’s So...Adorable, Dangerous, Tragic, To Die For...
A Dangerous Game
Promising Young Woman
(2020)
She’s drunk. You know she’s drunk. Stumbling, bumbling drunk.
And so that means you stay away from her. Or, you get her friend to help her. Or you call her a cab. That’s it. Not much more to say here.
Or, if she’s at the bar by herself and you’re worried about her, because she’s drunk—and young and pretty we should add—then maybe you offer her a ride home. Because hey, you’re a nice guy and wouldn’t it be terrible if something happened to her? Like if she got mugged? Or if some creep tried to take advantage of her because she’s so sloshed she can barely walk?
And remember, she’s quite young and pretty and fun and there are all kinds of jerks out there who might do something awful.
So you decide to help her and, really, what’s the harm if you decide to take her to your place instead of hers? You asked, she said yes, and even though she’s disturbingly inebriated, you’re a good guy and she obviously likes you and…
This is getting sick.
This is getting into the dark, sad minds of men. Particularly young men who might be drunk themselves and are driven by an inner force that sometimes makes them do horrible things.
And then she pops up and asks, in a stern, perfectly sober voice, “What are you doing?”
Promising Young Woman stars Carey Mulligan as a woman who has made it a habit to go to bars and feign intoxication to see what men will try to do with her. It isn’t just her habit, though, (and quite a dangerous one it is) it’s her crusade. It’s her vengeance.
As the story unfolds and we see her do this with several men we see that they are the unsuspecting ones, not her. And how shockingly and frighteningly and shamefully the tables turn when she, again, asks, “What are you doing?”
Why is she doing this? It’s revenge. It’s therapy. It’s madness. It’s a path that probably cannot lead to any justice or satisfaction, just more pain. But it’s rewarding, though frightening and heartbreaking, to take this journey with her.
This is a dark film but told in an almost fun way. Mulligan’s character is obsessed and vengeful but not evil. She is smart, she is fun, she is right, and she is the gatekeeper to a world of decisions we all make, assumptions we all live with, and ghosts and demons we wish to ignore.
We are with her. We are terrified for her. And we are disconsolate when the one person who can maybe help her step out her downward spiral turns out to be from the realm she is at war with.
You’re drunk, you’re young, you make mistakes. That can be forgiven, perhaps. But it cannot be forgotten. We all, at some point, could have done more to be the good person, to help the other person, to prevent the other person from needing help. None of us are perfect. And while we are allowed to move on from the pain we didn’t or couldn’t prevent we cannot abandon it entirely, either.
But we cannot let it consume us to the point that we can never be happy again. Or maybe cannot even survive.
Promising Young Woman is much more than a tragic exercise of grief and revenge. It is funny, it is fulfilling, and it is inspiring, even while often being so damn depressing. It is a film that, with a laugh and a wink, and a slap and a sneer, takes us to our darkest places and asks, “What are you doing?” --TK
Wednesday, July 14, 2021