Each year there always seems to be one particular film that everyone, and I mean everyone, is either talking about or hearing about. Last time it was Bong Joon Ho’s history making Parasite, this time it’s Emerald Fennell’s #metoo era black-comedy thriller Promising Young Woman that was making all the waves.

Now I’ve been wanting to see this film since the rumblings of promise started way back when but Covid scuppered my chances of watching this on the big screen and, in the end, I had to subscribe to yet another streaming service in order to finally see what all the fuss is about. But the real question is, will it deliver under the weight of all that expectation?

Nina Fisher and Cassandra ‘Cassie’ Thomas were both promising young medical students with top-of-their-class smarts and a friendship that had blossomed since childhood, so when Nina drops out of med school following a traumatic event, Cassie follows suit to take care of her friend. Now the details of the event that ultimately led to Nina’s suicide are unravelled slowly throughout the duration of the film but the inference is there from the film’s opening frame.

Seven years later, Cassie is working at a coffee shop with no real career, no friends and no real prospects, much to the chagrin of her parents who present her with a not-so-subtle gift for her 30th birthday. She does, however, have a very interesting hobby…

Once or twice a week, Cassie goes out and pretends to be almost blackout drunk to entrap all those players, douchebags and ‘good guys’ who believe that a perceived inability to formulate a clear and concise “No” (selective hearing, me thinks) obviously constitutes as a yes. These unsuspecting men act all chivalrous in making sure she gets home safely but always seem to manage to swing by their own apartments on the way. I think it’s fair to say that their attitude changes once they realise that their ‘conquest’ is actually stone cold sober.

When Ryan, an old classmate of hers, reenters her life she slowly begins to move on and open herself up to the possibility of love but when Ryan reveals that Al Monroe, the man who sent her on her journey of revenge, is back in the United States, to get married to a bikini model no less, she sets a plan in motion to go after him and the system of injustice that protects him and other promising young men like him.

In what is an arguably difficult lead, Carey Mulligan demonstrates a great emotional range and biting sense of comedic timing that delivers us a character that is strong and powerful yet also emotionally scarred and vulnerable. Her vengeance, anger and guilt simultaneously drives her forward and holds her back.

With a whole host of familiar names in the cast list, including the likes of Adam Brody, Molly Shannon, Alison Brie and Christopher Mintz-Plasse, it would be easy for Mulligan to get lost but it is her chemistry with her co-stars, from the chilling conversation with Dean Walker (Connie Britton) to the subtle emotion of her interaction with the lawyer who defended Nina’s attacker, where the true strength of her performance lies.

There is a lot to like about this film but if I’m completely honest, I’m not exactly sure how I feel overall. The acting is on point, the cinematography is stunningly metaphoric and the soundtrack is an edgy masterpiece of female pop music, a reclamation of power, but there is something not quite there with the actual story that I can’t put my finger on.

And let me tell you, there is nothing more frustrating than trying to write a review for something that left you feeling a bit middle of the road but you know in your heart is a five star film.

Although, in my mind, it didn’t quite live up to its full potential, Promising Young Woman is a visceral feast for the senses. A powerfully dark drama wrapped in a candy coloured coating that delivers its message like a shot to the heart without becoming the man-bashing, hate-filled vitriol that, in my opinion, hinders rather than helps the feminist movement. Yes, the men are the perpetrators and this is made unsympathetically clear but Fennell’s storytelling holds us all accountable; for our stereotypes, for our attitudes and for our lack of action.