Olivia Wilde has been in this industry for quite awhile now and it was when she made her first go as a director with her directorial debut in 2019’s Booksmart. Certainly not a film that’s taking home some Oscars or is it placed on a pedestal of excellence, but for a first time director it ended up being a funny, fresh and thoughtful teen comedy, and for a teen comedy in the modern era, it might be the best one of it’s kind. Booksmart didn’t cost but a shoe and a nickel, but Olivia Wilde proved that she’s got some talent telling story behind the camera. Whenever a director his a slam dunk with their first directed film, the buzz around them increases that we then get jazzed for their follow up film. Neil Blomkamp had his first film District 9 that people were over the moon for his follow up film in Elysium. Jordan Peele, a comedian, had Get Out that when his follow up film Us was set to hit theaters, it started to become an event. Great Gerwig, Ari Aster or even someone like Bradley Cooper are one of many people who had a directorial debut that made people inclined to see their follow up project no matter what because the quality of their first directed movie was solid. Olivia Wilde was starting to join that little club with one movie under her belt.
For those that pay attention to this website, we put up a post of the ten most anticipated movies left for the remainder of the year and Don’t Worry Darling was on that list and how could anyone blame you? The trailers, the cast and the overall premise of the movie was incredibly enticing. Everything about this movie seemed to be great based on the word at this years CinemaCon and whole bunch of other aspects. Instead of talking about the on set drama that happened with this movie (which seems to be effecting people’s overall experience with the movie to some extent), we’re here to simply judge Don’t Worry Darling on its own terms and not what happened off camera. With that being said, Don’t Worry Darling is an embarrassing mess.
Don’t Worry Darling has a crisp production design, unique framework and editing, intriguing themes and two solid performances from Florence Pugh and Chris Pine. The rest of the the movie, however, suffers from something feels missing and hollow. There are huge chunks of the of the script and storytelling that felt weak, thin and insufferable. It’s definitely an entertaining ride for a small portion of the movie, but it’s not the beautiful disaster it should have been based on the controversy.
Set in the 1950s in the great state of California, Don’t Worry Darling focuses on Alice and Jack, a happily married couple who reside in a little town called Victory. In the town, all the men work for some experimental company that houses each couple that lives there. When the husbands work during the day, the wives stay at home cooking, cleaning and making sure their husbands have something exciting when they come back home. However, strange and unusual things start to occur when Alice starts experience weird and familiar flashback that she can’t put to words to describe. Alice can’t help herself by learning what the men do during the day and question what the Victory project really is.
The biggest problem with Don’t Worry Darling really stems down to its script. There’s no easy way to this, but the script in this movie is bad. There’s nothing original about it, there’s nothing fresh or even anything that’s remotely unique. It’s as if Olivia Wilde watched a bunch of Black Mirror, The Matrix and Get Out and waned to create something in that environment that could spring off of those movies in some fashion, whether it’s a visual style or a type of story structure. The problem with that is the combination of all those aspects made the movie feel incredibly formulaic and the storytelling feel amateurish. You’ve got Florence Pugh and Chris Pine who serve as the films only compelling and interesting characters, but even some of the lines given to them felt in the moment and especially for the rest of the performers.
Florence Pugh is becoming Hollywood royalty with each project. From the MCU, Midsommar or Little Women, Pugh is an actress of her generation. She will be someone we’re going to hear about every year because she brings talent to everything. Her performance in Don’t Worry Darling, as stated earlier, is the best thing the movie has to offer. She shows great range and real power in her scenes (despite the script being lifeless). Chris Pine is also a terrific talent, and the dynamic between him and Pugh was an entertaining ingredient in this film. This is where the movie comes to another girding halt because outside of Florence Pugh and Chris Pine, the rest of the cast are so deeply unlikable. Gemma Chan, Olivia Wilde, Nick Kroll and Kiki Layne are poorly developed and boring pieces to this thing that they add nothing else to the rest of the film.
Then you come across Harry Styles. Let’s be honest with ourselves and say that Harry Styles hasn’t impressed us with his acting ability because he’s never really given an enriching or staggering performance in any role. You can’t really say he was good or bad in Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk because he hardly had any lines in that movie. Don’t Worry Darling was set to be a breakthrough performance for him due to it being his first major role as a co-lead. Styles gives a wooden, bland and dry performance in this film and what’s worst of all is that there was never a spark of chemistry between him and Florence Pugh. On paper it seems it like it would work, but there was something a bit uncomfortable about it watching it on screen.
Don’t Worry Darling has gorgeous visuals and alluring production design. Cinematographer Matthew Libatique (A Star is Born, Black Swan and Iron Man) isn’t on the same level of a Roger Deakins, but he’s definitely one of the best working today. The shot compositions in the choice of framework is really quite impressive. Certain shots in this movie stand really well on its own, only if you watch it on mute. Be that as it may, the style of editing and lighting in this movie are great. Another piece of the puzzle that actually adds some interest to the film is the music from composer John Powell. What makes his music so unique is that it’s nothing like anything he’s made before but it really works within this movie.
What should have been one of the best movies of the year ended up being maybe the most underwhelming picture of 2022. It’s something that could have been another win for Olivia Wilde as a director but it seemed as if Wilde was buying into her own hype with the final product of Don’t Worry Darling. When we get to the final act of the movie, that’s really where things go off the rails that don’t showcase any of Wilde’s talent. Should we now rethink Olivia Wilde as a director? We need to start having that discussion.
My final grade for Don’t Worry Darling: D
Zane's take at the Cinema's 