A One Mann’s Movies review of “Don’t Worry Darling” (2022).
Like three of the last four movies I’ve reviewed, there’s a lot of furore about “Don’t Worry Darling”: Shia LaBeouf being hired and fired (according to director Olivia Wilde for his “combative” acting style); alleged tensions between the cast (leading to ridiculous news stories like “spit-gate”); and tensions between the cast, especially Florence Pugh, and the director, some of this caused by Wilde and Harry Styles (LaBeouf’s replacement) becoming an item! As for the previous films, I’ll be parking all of that and considering the movie standalone.
I loved Olivia Wilde’s first feature “Booksmart“: smart, different and very very funny. And this follow-up couldn’t be more different from that comedy. An almost Hitchcockian thriller with a story on the surface akin to Brian Forbe’s 1975 classic “The Stepford Wives”; an environment reminiscent of “The Truman Show” and strong similarities to the plot of…. ah, but that would be a big spoiler which I’ll talk about in the Spoiler section below the trailer.
Bob the Movie Man Rating(s):
Plot Summary:
Alice (Florence Pugh) and Jack (Harry Styles) appear to have an idyllic life in a community called “Victory”, ruled over by the charismatic Frank (Chris Pine) and his wife (Gemma Chan). It’s clearly the 60’s, and all of the residents have nice houses and the best convertibles. But it’s all a bit odd. At the same time every morning all the men leave their women-folk to travel to their unspecified work. The women have all day to go shopping, clean the house, cook a delicious dinner and be ready with a drink and for sex when their men come through the door in the evening. But when Alice’s friend Margaret (KiKi Layne) starts behaving oddly, Alice starts to ask questions about her lifestyle.
Certification:
Talent:
Starring: Florence Pugh, Harry Styles, Olivia Wilde, Chris Pine, Gemma Chan, KiKi Layne, Timothy Simons.
Directed by: Olivia Wilde.
Written by: Katie Silberman (from a story by Carey Van Dyke and Shane Van Dyke).
Twitter Handles: #dontworrydarling.
“Don’t Worry Darling” Review:
Positives:
- As an actress, Florence Pugh is a force of nature! Loved her in “Little Women” and was impressed by her in “Black Widow“, but she was more “supporting” in both of those. Here she is very much the leading lady and she 100% handles that with aplomb. You can’t take your eyes off her. And she has the BEST onscreen orgasms! If there was an Oscar category for “Best Orgasm” – and I would strongly suggest the Academy Awards would be a much more entertaining event if there was – then Pugh should be the bookie’s favourite!
- Pugh and Pine have by far the best onscreen moments together. An electrically charged dinner party sees the pair crackle off each other and are the best moments of the whole film.
- The cinematography (by Matthew Libatique) is spectacular as is the combination of John Powell’s uncharacteristically creepy score with the whole sound design of the film. I can see this one getting an Oscar nomination for Sound.
- I’ve seen criticism of the screenplay. And yes, the story was a bit cookie-cutter from the other movies I’ve referenced above (and more in the spoiler section). But I thought it had its moments:
- The illustrious Mrs Movie Man was impressed with the way the feminist agenda was reflected, counterpointing the blatant mysogynism on show. I personally loved the scene where Alice slipped into the seat at the head of the table, ahead of her husband.
- There are some nice bits of dialogue. In one scene, a ‘wife’ is delighted that they are building more of the project behind their houses because they will be “nearer the centre of town”. “But you won’t be nearer the centre of town” says Alice. “We won’t be on the outside any more” she replies. A delightful case of something being both true and false like Schrödinger’s cat! The film really needed more sparkling exchanges like this.
- Like “Lost”, some elements of the screenplay are almost deliberately obtuse. The ‘crashing plane’, for example, is never explained. (I discuss these more in the spoiler section).
- The ending was left nicely vague, which I liked.
Negatives
- I’ve seen a lot of criticism of Harry Styles casting. One of the issues for me was that his British accent just didn’t suit the mood of the movie. He WAS supposed to be British…. he’s referred to as a “Brit” in the film. But it just grated badly with me. And although I agree with some comments I’ve seen that he is a bit wooden, I don’t think he’s THAT bad… it’s just that when he is acting against Pugh and Pine he just looks out of his league.
- If you analyse the plot after the event there are a whole bunch of holes to pick apart! (More in the Spoiler Section below.)
Summary Thoughts on “Don’t Worry Darling”:
It’s not novel, but I really enjoyed the execution of this, especially seeing Florence Pugh knock it out of the park. I saw where it was going fairly early on, but it was still a fun ride.
I clearly enjoyed this a lot more than many other critics, which is fine! And I wasn’t sure if the illustrious Mrs Movie Man would enjoy this one. But she loved it too. So that’s two thumbs up!
Trailer for “Don’t Worry Darling”:
The trailer is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgmnKsED-jU .
Spoiler Section:
Don’t read past this point if you’ve not seen the movie.
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NO, SERIOUSLY!
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Film influences
I’ve already referenced “The Stepford Wives” and “The Truman Show”. (And btw, Alice getting to the “HQ doorway” struck me as very similar to Truman reaching the “edge” of the dome). But with the twists of the plot finally revealed, there are two more obvious matches:
- The TV show “Wandavision“. This was about a 60’s style idyll of married bliss that was entirely generated by the mind of Wanda.
- But a closer match still is “The Matrix”: physical bodies held in stasis while all of the action happens in the connected minds of those individuals.
Plot Holes
- How was all of this actually working? What was connecting their brains to create this shared conciousness, and exactly to what purpose?
- Was all of this supposed to be happening in real time? If so, who was sustaining Alice and Harry in their bed (and all the other participants in their’s)? In “The Matrix”, this was explained. Here it simply was not!
- Why exactly would someone killed in the Victory project also die in real life? This doesn’t really make any sense (unless the “eyewear” had some sort of remote brain spike!)
Interesting unexplained aspects of the plot
- What was the crashing plane about? Who was generating that image, and was it connected to the model plane of Margaret’s “son”?
- What were the “explosions” going on, thanks to the “boys with toys” doing their work?
- What were the “progressive materials”?
- Did Alice escape at the end? Or did she get returned to the project? (As she got there once already, why didn’t she ‘escape’ the first time?)
