Years after an event that occurred to her best friend Nina, recently 30 year old Cassie is on a mission to teach men a lesson in “consent”.
As her obsession grows, and she discovers who it was from her past who hurt her friend, can her new beau Ryan, keep from taking things too far?
Direction
There is nice/solid direction from Emerald Fennell, who also wrote the screenplay. Some more unique moments occur throughout the film are how the ‘chapters’ of Cassie’s journey are shown with each displayed on the screen (Chapter I,II,III,IIII)
Cast/Characters
Carey Mulligan plays Cassie, whose character does take a while to warm up to. Her journey along her desire to ‘fake’ drunk so men will take advantage of her backfires at one point in the movie. This does make the audience think worse of her – however clever revelations revealed later in the film compensate for this – and she becomes an almost anti hero in her journey.
Bo Burnham is sweet as Ryan, who went to medical school with Cassie, and knew her before what happened to Nina.
He has genuinely beautiful chemistry with Mulligan. I haven’t come across his work before but he handled the content well, and you are left at the end of the film both hating him, and feeling somewhat empathetic for him too.
Screen legends Jennifer Coolidge and Clancy Jones play Cassie’s parents. One nitpick is they don’t really get much to do, and we don’t get to see their reaction of what ‘happens’ to her – or the comeuppance of what happens after.
Adam Brody, who had already established a name recognition for himself appears in the opening of the movie. This becomes a fake out role, and it is a cameo appearance only.
Molly Shannon, plays Nina’s mother, who has moved on from what has happened to her daughter, and begs Cassie to do the same.
There are also a bunch of ‘named’ celebrities who have brief roles throughout the film.
Screenplay/Setting/Themes
The main narrative arc of the film is Cassie’s wanting ‘revenge’ on men – especially ones who take advantage of women who are vulnerable.
She also has her ‘revenge’ arc where she is looking at finding a group of men who raped her best friend Nina, which led to her suicide.
Neither the word rape or the mention of Nina actually killing herself are confirmed – other than when she is discussing Nina with a character – and said character asks ‘is she okay?’ and Cassie responds coldly ‘no’.
Non Conventional numerals as mentioned earlier appear as Cassie goes on her mission to ‘teach those who wronged Nina’ a lesson, which include some known celebrities in smaller roles. These include;
- (I) Alison Brie as Madison, who blamed Nina for her assault for over-drinking. This leads Cassie to make Madison believe something similar happened to her.
- (II) Connie Britton, the Dean of the University who dismissed the case Nina started on her attacker, Al Monroe
- (III) Alfred Molina as the lawyer for Al Monroe, who is now deeply remorseful for his actions against Nina, and becomes one of Cassie’s allies.
This is another movie with very aggressive coarse language, as well as the aforementioned themes of r*pe and suici*e. This is another film where American’s try to use the ‘c’ word, but they just can’t deliver it like the Brits and the Aussies (ironically that Mulligan herself is British, but using an American accent here).
The film is also incredibly brave for having a non conventional ending with what happens to Cassie, with epilogue of Nina’s attackers getting their ‘just desserts’.
Score/Soundtrack
The score is especially impressive during some key moments, such as when she attacks the other driver with the tire iron (which is an homage to Richard Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde.
Also at the beginning of Ch 4, when she arrives at Al’ party, it has an almost eerie and disturbing sound to it, which hints at what is about to occur.
Overall
Produced by Margot Robbie, and Executive produced by Mulligan herself, this was a well written and acted film. The themes are quite disturbing for those with a thinner skin, but the end result is well delivered by all involved. A strong recommend, but not for the faint hearted.
4/5
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