I had very high hopes for Olivia Wilde’s second time behind the camera with Don’t Worry Darling. I loved Book Smart from 2019 and I am a big fan of many of her movies that she has actually acted in and this looked very interesting. Like many people, from the trailers I got a weird, Stepford Wives, WandaVision-type vibe from the movie and that just made me even more interested to see what it was all about.
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The Movie Review
As well as having Oliva Wilde as the director, Don’t Worry Darling features a cast of actors that I am really into. Florence Pugh is awesome, Harry Styles is really starting to come into his own, I will watch pretty much anything with Nick Kroll in it and Chris Pine just seems to get better and better with age! The cast is awesome, but the story that is trying to be told here is just so weird.
I knew that this was going to be a weird movie, I love weird and out-there movies. However, Don’t Worry Darling was just missing something, and even after sitting on writing this review for a couple of days, I am still not sure what that was. The story just felt kind of flat, like it was trying to be too clever and philosophical for its own good.
It takes place in what I assume is the 1950s, the time period is never actually specified. The setting is a fictional town called Victory which is a town that has just been built by the company Victory (yes the same name) for the employees and their family to live in. The men go to work every day and the wives, raise the kids and look after the home.
Jack and Alice are a young couple and they seem happy enough, actually, everyone in Victory seems happy and like they have good and fulfilling lives. However, one day, Alice spots something very, very strange and starts to question what is really going on in Victory. The movie is basically her descent into paranoia as she tries to figure out what is going on and who she can trust.
The movie throws a ton of curveballs your way and the imagery here is super weird, but the aesthetic of the movie was probably the thing I liked about it the most. Seeing Alice go further and further down the rabbit hole made for some really weird and interesting scenes that were pretty cool.
We all know that the people behind this movie are very talented and their performances were fine. However, I just found myself confused, but not in a good or fun way in regards to the plot. It never made me want to sit on the edge of my seat and pay super close attention to every little detail. It felt like a movie that was trying way too hard to be odd.
I am not saying that Don’t Worry Darling was a bad movie, but it was not a great one either. I feel like there could be a good movie in here and I am sure some people will “get it” far better than I did. I was disappointed with this one, but I will say that I am going to give it another watch when it is released on Blu-Ray/DVD to see if I can follow it better the second time around.