“Don’t Worry Darling” is a choppy thriller set in the 1950s inside an experimental utopian community tied to a shady company named Victory.
Directed by Olivia Wilde, the film stars “Midsommar” actress Florence Pugh alongside big names such as Harry Styles, Chris Pine and Nick Kroll. Pugh plays Alice Chambers, a housewife who grows suspicious of the Victory corporation after strange events unravel in her neighborhood.
Over its two hour runtime, “Don’t Worry Darling” reveals itself to be a poorly written thriller that continuously fails to build excitement. The story is a mind numbing chore to watch, and even when something tragic happens, the film quickly stagnates and leads nowhere. The film also has multiple scenes that feel too mundane and ridiculous to take seriously. For a movie that’s supposed to be a thriller, “Don’t Worry Darling” wastes a lot of time building meaningless suspense with nonsensical sequences.
The mystery behind the antagonists is also handled poorly. Viewers don’t learn nearly enough about the Victory corporation or its enigmatic leader Frank, played by Pines, to fully engage with the conflict. A thriller without well developed villains feels hollow, and it shows in the film’s reliance on poorly paced suspense and mystery.
One of the film’s strengths is its stylized 1950s set and costumes, which are shiny and aesthetically pleasing, but even this is bogged down by one of the film’s biggest issues: the cinematography. The film frequently jumpcuts to a mortifying scene in the middle of a random moment in the story, and it is not only headache-inducing, but also a major contributor to the plot’s disorganization and incoherence.
The only saving grace for “Don’t Worry Darling” is Pugh’s stunning performance, which breathes a small breath of fresh air into a suffocating plot. As Jack Chambers, Styles is a fantastic co-star who shares an undeniable stroke of chemistry with Pugh. Styles, as well as other cast members, like Pine, might have easily reached his full potential had he been given stronger material.
Since even before its release, “Don’t Worry Darling” has been plagued by talk of onset disagreements and friction between various members of the cast and crew.
Drama like this has the ability to kill art just as much as bad writing and cinematography. If the rumors are true, “Don’t Worry Darling” could be one of the clearest examples of what happens when great art is handled by an unhealthy group of gifted collaborators who can’t set aside their differences to produce something amazing.
