Don’t Worry Darling (2022)
Don't Worry Darling is not a bad movie per se, but it seems made out of spare parts from better films, like The Stepford Wives via The Truman Show to Get Out.
Olivia Wilde's second film, after the critically acclaimed Booksmart, is entertaining, for the most part at least, because the second act drags on too long and the main character Alice (Florence Pugh) is reduced to coming across like a victim for far too long.
The real fun is in the first part, in which the sunny side of 1950s America is carefully reconstructed, even though it is fairly obvious that underneath the shiny surface something horrible is going on.
And the devil is not only in the visual details, but also in the tail end of the movie, when Alice is finally allowed to cut loose.
Funny name, by the way, Alice, it immediately evokes associations with in Wonderland or Through the looking glass.
But then again, there is a lot that's a little too obvious in this good-looking mystery chiller, and people who've seen the movies that I’ve mentioned above will definitely see certain reveals coming. So that’s basically enough about the plot.
Famous singer Harry Styles does an okay job as Alice's husband Jack, but the future will tell if he really has what it takes as an actor. He has the charisma of a born performer, but he is not yet able to put the nuances in his acting that the more experienced actors seem to do so effortlessly. Like Pugh, who dominates most of their scenes together, but certainly also Chris Pine who easily steals the show as the charismatic leader of the Victory Project, which Alice and Jack have joined to lead better lives and ‘change the world.’
At one point, Don’t Worry Darling seems to muster an attack on the Patriarchy, or Authority in general, but soon the movie becomes to silly to be convincing.
The movie looks magnificent, though, thanks to the dazzling cinematography by Matthew Libatique (Black Swan), and Wilde definitely has a feel for directing big set pieces. But the script runs out of ideas rather sooner than later, simply because at the heart of the movie there is no real ‘heart’ there to begin with.
Wilde herself has a supporting role as the bitchy Bunny, one of the other women in the model village where the story is set.
By the way, there are also nods to The Firm, Westworld and even Steven Knight's failed thriller Serenity. It's a good thing that not everyone has seen that last film, because just by mentioning it, we are actually giving away way too much…
Don't Worry Darling is a fun grab bag, and could be quite successful by just coasting on the appeal of the cast. What is missing above all is a glimmer of real originality.