THERE WILL BE SPOILERS
When Olivia Wilde directed her fantastic debut feature Booksmart in 2019, there was much expectation as to her follow-up film.
Well, the time has come – Don’t Worry Darling (2022) is here, but it is, alas, not really what everyone was expecting from Wilde given the quality of her previous movie.
Part of it can be attributed to a very miscalculated script. Loosely following the plot of Ira Levin’s The Stepford Wives, it is clear from the get-go that all is not well in Victory, the movie’s settlement of choice.
The concept of digging up the dirt behind the pristine appearance of American suburbia has been picked up so many times on screen before that it has almost become a cliché.
This does in no way mean that it can’t be done again to great results. However, knowing as we do that some ugly truth or other will end up coming up to the surface, one wonders whether it would not have been better to have the big twist earlier on in the film.
Victory is in fact a virtual simulation where most women are held unwillingly – and unknowingly. We can guess that something is amiss very early on, and it would probably have been much more interesting to delve into the implications of living in a cult and the difficulties faced when trying to escape it.
Much talked about for all the wrong reasons and having received terrible reviews, Don’t Worry Darling is not the big disaster some have proclaimed it to be either.
There is much merit to be found in its immaculate production design, with some very striking images of black-and-white dancers and nightmarish scenes of our protagonist, Alice, fearing for her sanity.
Florence Pugh delivers a stellar performance, as she always does, and Chris Pine is also great as the creepy, cult-like antagonist leader of Victory. Their dinamic is definitely a highlight.
On the whole, while Don’t Worry Darling does not even come close to the expectations that where set upon it, it is still an entertaining film – and much better than many other movies currently in theaters.
Let’s just hope that Wilde goes back to form with her next feature, which we’ll definitely be anticipating here.
All images belong to their respective owners.