Movie Review - Don't Worry Darling

Director: Olivia Wilde
Genre: Drama/ Thriller
Runtime: 123 minutes
Year: 2022
Starring: Florence Pugh, Olivia Wilde, Harry Styles, Chris Pine, Kiki Layne, Gemma Chan, Nick Kroll
 
Description: A 1950s housewife (Florence Pugh) living with her husband (Harry Styles) in an utopian experimental community begins to worry that his glamorous company could be hiding disturbing secrets.

Review: Almost nothing more iconic than the suburb of an American city in the 1950s. industrious housewives wave their husbands off each morning as they head off to work in their shiny cars. In the evening, a sumptuous meal is on the table. During the day, the women gossip and chat, in between cleaning their houses, ballet class and taking care of the children. the American dream in a nutshell, but we all know the dark side.

The perfect families, always smiling, never troubles and always neat and tidy. The families who have moved into the suburbs of the thriller “Don’t Worry Darling” van flawlessly go along with the ideal image. What exactly their husbands do in the Californian desert is a mystery to the wives, but they aren’t allowed to ask either. The families are part of the utopian Victory project, started by their employer who also lives in this neighborhood. Jack and his wife Alice are one of the couples. Their perfect life is in danger when Alice does the very thing she is not supposed to do: ask questions.

The second directorial project for Olivia Wilde, who also has a supporting role, had quite a few issues. After Wilde’s debut movie, studios fought over het next project. The casting was anything but flawless: Shia LeBeouf was fired after misconduct and apparently Wilde did not get along with leading lady Florence Pugh. None of this shows. For a long time, this suspenseful drama is driven by a pleasant sense of alienation and mystery. It all begins after Alice makes a curious observation in the desert and goes to investigate. And why is the neighbor behaving so hysterically?

Then there is the benefactor of the project who is bursting with charm and charisma but in the meantime wants to control everything. Wilde plays the entrenched image od the American middle class in the 1950s complete with its attendant gender roles. No man van excel without a woman by his side. That the latter must above all meekly keep her mouth shut and follow order in an environment of narrow-mindedness is conveniently omitted.

These circumstances combined with Alice’s curious nature are bound to cause problems. The unhappy housewife, who maintains a passionate relationship with her husband Jack, undergoes the usual patterns of her own disbelief, not being believed herself and facing opposition from those around her. We have seen this pattern passed by before, but it’s embedded in unusual circumstances and performed by a downright heroine whose resistance she experiences only makes her more combative.

That something is quite wrong in peaceful Victory is obvious, and along with Alice, the viewer sets out to investigate. The film is not at all predictable, even though you know something bad is going to happen.

Wilde directs tightly but vividly, with the bright colors of the 1950s and the sweltering desert heat becoming increasingly stifling.

Once unfolded, “Don’t Worry Darling” evokes a host of comparisons to other films, which I will not list to avoid spoilers. The excellent acting completes the picture. even former One Direction star Harry Styles does a fine job. Not genius, but certainly a refreshingly unconventional mindfuck.

Rating: 4/ 5