Movie Summary – Don’t Worry Darling
Don’t Worry Darling has been in the spotlight since the beginning. And this was long before Harry Styles got involved. It was a film everyone wanted to make — some 18 studios and streaming services were courting Wilde for the chance to partner with her on her sophomore feature as a director: A mid-century psychological thriller about a housewife, Alice (Florence Pugh), who starts to question her picture-perfect life and the mysterious company that her husband Jack (Styles) works for.
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Seem being the operative word here. Set in the perfectly designed town of Victory (as if “Leave It to Beaver” was set in Palm Springs), “Don’t Worry Darling” follows young housewife Alice Chamber (Pugh) as she begins to suspect that her lavish existence is, well, not what it seems. Despite the trappings of a prosperous suburban existence — handsome husband (Harry Styles), cute house, great outfits, kicky girlfriends, parties galore — Alice can’t shake the feeling that something is out of place.
But every time she tries to ask hubby Jack what he and his friends do at their desert headquarters, or dares to wonder if there’s anything beyond keeping a clean house, she’s waylaid. There’s dance class to attend, or a martini to mix, or Jack gobbling her up for a quickie. The women stay with the women. Her husband thinks she hangs the moon. She makes a mean roast. She’s a living doll.
Surely, that’s not all there is. As Alice wonders, so too does the audience.
As Alice’s internal confusion pushes into her external existence, nothing feels safe. Alice has a keen understanding that in a place like Victory, the very hint of something wrong is, in itself, deeply wrong. Those moments propel the film through its first two acts. So does Pugh.
As Victory’s revered leader, only Chris Pine seems interested in and able to face off with Pugh, to go toe-to-toe. However, the film cuts off their contentious relationship after a handful of pulse-pounding scenes. Another missed opportunity among many.
Many of the film’s most striking sequences were spoiled in the film’s marketing, from Pugh wrapping her head in cling wrap to Pugh being literally crushed by closing-in walls or Pugh racing across a vast desert. They remain impressive in the moment, but reveal that the images are bigger than the story they serve.
It looks good, but it has nothing to say that hasn’t already been said before, and better, by other films.
Wilde and Silberman seem to bank on the raw power of the film’s third-act reveal to make up for the conspicuously predictable plotting of “Don’t Worry Darling,” but that flimsy switcheroo only detracts from the film’s actual merits.
Pugh’s outstanding performance and the extraordinary below-the-line craftsmanship are all impeccably rendered, but they can’t overcome the film’s rotten core concept. Poke one hole in the attempted logic of “Don’t Worry Darling,” and you’ll find three more open right up. The rules of this world cease to make sense and, even worse, their intentions appear to be borne of hideous misunderstanding and misreading.
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