‘Don't Worry Darling’ Delivers On Drama
Starring Florence Pugh, Oliva Wilde, Chris Pine, Harry Styles, Gemma Chan, Kate Berlant, Nick Kroll, Timothy Simons
Rated R
Thriller, Drama
Run time: 2 hr, 2 min
Directed by Olivia Wilde
In theaters September 23, 2022
It would be easy to focus more on the real life dramatics than the ones in Don’t Worry Darling, considering how much of it has taken over headlines and social media, and it definitely clouded my hopes and expectations for this film. Between the cast list and the initial trailer, I was irrationally excited. It had so much going for it, and before much had even been known about the project, it was getting a great deal of buzz. Olivia Wilde’s directing debut Booksmart was a critical success that became a sleeper hit and raved about far and wide. Florence Pugh is becoming one of the most bankable young actors in Hollywood, and one of the most intriguing. Throw in Gemma Chan (the best thing about Eternals), Chris Pine (one of the best of the Chrises), Harry Styles (who put forth a surprisingly great performance in Dunkirk) and a random Nick Kroll (who automatically adds a level of humor and enjoyment to almost any film he’s in) and it was incredibly promising. Thankfully, it actually did pull together to be a solid movie, but the effects were dampened due to being overshadowed by the shenanigans behind the camera (both real and overblown).
Alice (Pugh) and Jack (Styles) are a young married couple newly arrived to the community called Victory. This idyllic seeming town was created by Frank (Pine), who lives in the biggest house in the area with his wife, Shelley (Chan). The men all work in a facility that is shrouded in mystery and is not even discussed among the gents beyond vague sounding terms. The women clean, shop, take barre classes and lounge by the pool. But unsurprisingly, things aren’t always what they seem and the cracks start to show, especially after Margaret (KiKi Layne), a friend and neighbor, clearly has a bit of a break and struggles to come back from a traumatic event - and Alice discovers that the men - or at least someone in charge - is trying to cover it all up.
The look of this film is absolutely wonderful. Every piece of furniture, every article of clothing and every minute prop is perfectly suited to the vintage feel of this world. The hairstyles and dresses the women wear are swoon-worthy and the aesthetic alone is worth seeing the movie. There are jarring, black and white images that cut in at times, and the contrast between that nightmare and the dreamy vibes of the film is extremely effective. It doesn’t take very long at all to see things taking a dramatic turn for the worst, even outside of what the plot development explicitly tells you. The score alternates between soothing and unsettling as we - along with Alice - try to figure out what’s real. While it is clearly evident that things have gone sideways, it’s hard to tell where exactly the source of it truly is. There are elements of WandaVision, Get Out, The Stepford Wives and - I can’t believe I’m saying this - Serenity (not the Firefly film, but the notoriously bad film starring Matthew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway from earlier this decade). And you’re never sure which way it’s going to turn.
I may be biased, as Pugh has quickly become one of my favorite actors, but I was extremely impressed by her performance in Darling (even though she is not allowed to be British, despite there being other characters in this that are). She’s so often the only one in her scenes, and despite acting against no one for a lot of the film, she kills it. She is able to go from benignly smiling to utterly terrified on a dime, and everything in between seems perfectly related. A few performances, namely Pine’s, Kroll’s and Chan’s, didn’t quite hit the mark, but that could have been the design of the film and the intent of Wilde’s direction. It may not have been the jaw-dropping movie I had hoped for during the last year, but it definitely held up and was better than I had anticipated once my expectations had sunk. Maybe, just maybe, I’ll get to see a movie where Pugh actually gets to use her normal British accent. That’s the real dream.