'Don't Worry Darling,' but please focus
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At times feeling like Stanley Kubrick’s “Pleasantville,” “Don’t Worry Darling” never escapes its origins as a copy of a copy of a “Twilight Zone” episode. The goal is to modernize “The Stepford Wives” and “The Truman Show” into a modern indictment of the patriarchy and gaslighting; the result is a repetitive mess that never expands past its first idea.
Of course, by now you’re probably wondering, “But what about all the behind-the-scenes drama?” Yes, yes, it’s very likely most people know about “Don’t Worry Darling” even if they know nothing about the movie itself, only the tabloid hubbub over director/co-star Olivia Wilde and her new boyfriend/co-star Harry Styles and allegedly furious star Florence Pugh. Perhaps tales like that have always and will always move copies of Us Weekly. Perhaps all that wouldn’t have dominated the news cycle so if “Don’t Worry Darling” offered something of substance to discuss. Yet the ultimate sensation left by “DWD” and all its sensationalized interpersonal business is wanting much less of the gossip and much more from the narrative.
Pugh and Styles star as Alice and Jack, a married couple in an idyllic town in which every man works for the Victory Project and every woman (wife) passes the day with chatting, booze and ballet and makes sure to have a drink waiting at the door when their husband comes home. What is the Victory Project? What do the guys do when they’re at work? What’s up with the operation’s CEO (Chris Pine), who seems more like a charismatic yet hollow cult leader than a business person? Something is obviously up here, and Alice’s efforts to address some red flags are met only with the suggestion that she is the one with the problem.
There’s no question that the last several years have brought new focus and relevance to the term gaslighting, and no one should deny the simultaneous timeliness and evergreen…ness of a story that deconstructs men seeking power and control at the cost of women. But the overdirected, underwritten “Don’t Worry Darling” puts all its energy into a mystery that isn’t mysterious and dizzying stylistic tricks that all lead to the same underwhelming place. No matter how much Pugh’s typically great work keeps us wondering, Styles doesn’t give Jack the shading he needs, and Wilde’s command of the story is a long way from her handling of the exhilarating “Booksmart.” There are so many questions that the movie doesn’t ask about the very basics of how this works and why.
Anyone looking for a creepy story of toxic masculinity in a remote setting should catch up with “Windfall.” Anyone wondering if “Don’t Worry Darling” is a movie to talk about with those who’ve seen it or a series of salacious rumors to chat about with those who haven’t now have their answer.
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