Keep calm! And, carry on! ‘Don’t Worry Darling’ marks Director Olivia Wilde’s second feature film, this time about a 50’s housewife trying to solve the mysteries of the company town she and her husband live and work in.
The Plot – Don’t Worry Darling
Alice Chambers, played by Florence Pugh, lives a good life. 50’s housewife to an up-and-coming professional, in husband Jack, played by Harry Styles; Alice maintains their home.
Jack works at a mysterious, Top Secret job called the ‘Victory Project’ under the leadership of the equally mysterious Frank, played by Chris Pine. Alice is kept in the dark most of the film. Expected to be the dutiful housewife, making a warm dinner, and having a romantic greeting when Jack gets home from work; Alice does as asked. Alice seems content at home, living next to Bunny, played by Olivia Wilde, and going to ballet practice. Slowly, though, things begin to change.
She has a growing feeling that something is off, and has a growing need to solve that mystery. Margaret, played by KiKi Layne, sees it first, with Alice feeling Margaret’s pain.
In a company town such as this, secrecy is of the utmost importance, and as such, answers to questions are few and far between. So, when Alice starts asking pretty basic questions, eyebrows start to raise, and people make note.
Eventually though, Alice’s persistence pushes things further and further afield — leaving the company, and Jack, with few options. The options left to Alice? Even fewer still.
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The Good – Don’t Worry Darling
The Cast
Overall, the cast is strong in ‘Don’t Worry Darling.’
Chris Pine plays a rather reserved villain-esque type character in Frank. KiKi Layne raises the first concerns about the reality of their world as Margaret.
Director Olivia Wilde pulls double duty as Bunny, and Florence Pugh shines as Alice. Also of note, Timothy Simons as Dr. Collins, delivers the line of the film, with classic 1950’s enthusiasm, and false bravado.
The Musical Soundtrack
The Soundtrack for Don’t Worry Darling really sets that 1950’s tone.
The soundtrack includes songs from Ray Charles, Dizzy Gillespie, Ella Fitzgerald, Mel Torme, Brenton Wood, and ‘Sh-Boom’ from The Chords. While that’s a wide range of musical groups, the collective tone of the times and of a young couple working the husband’s first ‘Big’ job reflects nicely with the song selection.
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The Bad – Don’t Worry Darling
Harry Styles
Far from the worst thing in this film, Harry Styles doesn’t destroy this film. But, he doesn’t do much to jump off the screen, either.
It’s odd knowing that Shia LaBeouf was originally hired for the role of Jack, but drama happened and he left the film. While it’s not like Shia LaBeouf is an Oscar nominated or winning actor, he is an experienced actor who has come a long way since the Transformers movies.
Harry Styles wasn’t bad in the role, but he is still a bit of a neophyte actor, and that reflects in his performance as Jack. He’s got that great English accent, and has a ton of charm; but he doesn’t embody the character in a way that you see how Florence Pugh’s character fell in love with him.
He doesn’t show off much promise that the character of Jack would gravitate towards, and he doesn’t show much compassion or concern for his wife in any convincing way. He doesn’t stand out as being the weakness of the film, but he doesn’t exactly have much presence in the film worthy of holding up the weight of being second billed on the project, either.
Directing
I hate having to put Olivia Wilde in the ‘Bad’ category for ‘Don’t Worry Darling’, because I’m a huge fan of her acting work, and I see tons of promise in her as a Director… BUT, there are so many things wrong with this movie, and they have nothing to do with the behind the scenes drama that broke out in recent weeks.
The two hour runtime for ‘Darling’ was 30 minutes too long, and the story arc for Alice doesn’t seem to really progress or go anywhere. There seems to be a loop taking place with Alice’s character. It feels more reminiscent of a television or streaming show, but hardly fitting a feature film.
I found myself checking my phone several times in the second hour of the film to see if the film was almost over, only to realize that there was still a huge chunk left. And yet, the film felt like it was two and a half hours long, rather than the actual two hour runtime.
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The Review – Don’t Worry Darling
Wasted Premise
The cast is strong, the visuals compelling, and the musical soundtrack is great. But, the storytelling drags.
Chris Pine’s Frank has a few fun monologues. In fact, the first one felt like Chris Pine perfectly channeled William Shatner (which after three films playing Captain Kirk, was highly amusing). Sparing that, most of the dialogue feels flat.
There’s little through line to the other housewives characters’, and really should have been there for the story to make sense. KiKi Layne’s ‘Margaret’ and Sydney Chandler‘s ‘Violet’, especially would have benefitted with greater development and connection to Alice as proxies for the housewives’ station in life.
Also, the eventual reveal of the mystery and the progress of Alice’s character drag through the whole runtime. Rather than building towards a payoff, the film bores you into submission. I suppose this could be a political statement about a housewife’s station in life in the 1950s, but there’s nothing intentional about this boringness. Just bad filmmaking.
Two hours FEELS like it’s 30 minutes longer, when it should’ve been 30 minutes shorter.
Boring, slow, and highly predictable. Not awful, but wastes a fun premise. I expected more from Director Olivia Wilde.
SKIP IT.
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Score
Score
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Director Olivia Wilde returns with Mystery 'Don't Worry Darling' in her sophomore outing. Florence Pugh, Harry Styles, Chris Pine star.