Promising Young Woman

I can’t believe I didn’t stumble across this film sooner — and I genuinely regret that, because it’s a masterpiece and I’m not afraid to say it.

I found it and decided to watch purely for two reasons: Jennifer Coolidge, and a surprisingly high rating on Rotten Tomatoes that really intrigued me. I didn’t expect to see what I saw.

The cast is great, and the visuals are excellent.

I really liked the main character and her motivations. Very much a girl’s girl! She reminds me of Amy from Gone Girl.

Now for some honesty: I felt the film wasn’t quite as gritty as it could have been. I would have liked to see her actually punish the men and make them face real consequences — but unfortunately, that didn’t happen. It felt like the creators were too easy on the male audience (and some women too). They didn’t want to scare people off or make the film seem “too” man-hating — even though, as it is, it’s already brought out plenty of men crying that it’s “agenda” to always show men in a bad light. As if we can’t read crime statistics ourselves. Or as if there aren’t thousands of superhero and action movies where men constantly do this to each other without anyone batting an eye.

I felt the film could have been more focused on the main character and her revenge without the bad ending for her — more like Kata by Steinar Bragi in that sense. Or maybe putting herself in danger was part of her plan too — maybe she was so depressed and consumed by guilt that she wouldn’t have minded sacrificing herself just to put them all in prison, and simply didn’t know how to keep living with that burden.

That’s why the ending left me really disappointed — even though I understand it’s a completely realistic scenario, since she’s not some kind of vigilante superhero. I just wish she was.