A new trailer for “Promising Young Woman” kicks off with a disturbing image — Carey Mulligan struggling to maintain consciousness at a bar while a nearby man weighs in on how it’d be her fault if someone decides to take advantage of her drunken, vulnerable state. “Good god almighty. You know they put themselves in danger, girls like that,” he tells a friend. “You’d think you’d learn by that age, right?”
Never mind the fact that men his age should know better than to prey on women and victim-blame. We don’t hear his friend’s thoughts about the matter, but we do see him bringing Cassie (Mulligan) home. And he’s not there to ensure she gets there safely. He’s there to assault her. We see him mounting her nearly lifeless body on a bed as she mumbles aloud asking him what he’s doing. He ignores her — only to witness her transform. Cassie isn’t drunk after all. She repeats her original question more loudly and clearly, “Hey. I said, what are you doing?”
“Every week, I go to a club. I act like I’m too drunk to stand. And every week, a nice guy comes over to see if I’m OK,” Cassie explains in a voiceover. Most of these “nice guys” are anything but — and Cassie is determined to make the would-be rapists pay for their misdeeds.
The spot suggests that Cassie has been seeking revenge ever since a mysterious event destroyed her dream of becoming a doctor and derailed her future. “I’m not the only one who didn’t believe it,” a friend from Cassie’s past tells her. We also see a school administrator tell her that they “get accusations like this all the time.” It seems as though Cassie was sexually assaulted in med school and no one took the crime seriously — or faced any consequences for it. Now she’s determined to right that wrong.
“Promising Young Woman” marks former “Killing Eve” showrunner Emerald Fennell’s feature directorial debut. Also an actress, she’s appeared in “The Crown” and “Call the Midwife.”
Mulligan received an Oscar nod in 2010 for “An Education.” “Wildlife,” “Mudbound,” and “Suffragette” are among her more recent credits.
“Promising Young Woman” arrives in theaters April 17. Fennell penned the script.
