Spoiler Warning: This discussion has very few spoilers: some set up from the first act, a general idea of the narrative at hand.
"What is the opposite of progress?
Olivia Wilde’s Don’t Worry Darling hit the press for all the wrong reasons (more than once). It feels like it has been next to forgotten as the product that caused the Florence Pugh and Olivia Wilde drama, the Harry Styles acting pursuit, and the bizarre festival run. Evidently, there’s a reason for that – the film is a mess. There’s no other word for it; it’s a sloppy, surface-level take on an idea done a million times better in other places. It’s not without its individual efforts, hardly the worst film of the year, but it’s easy to see why everyone was talking about the conflict and not the film itself.
The most rewarding experience is Florence Pugh’s performance. She never fails to impress, already one of my favourite actresses working right now; even if the screenplay limits this from being close to her turns in Midsommar or Little Women, her leading role is the only substantial reason to give this a chance. Harry Styles, on the other hand, in his first major speaking role, hovers between the quality of a British soap star and the okay supporting actor you see billed seventh in a Hollywood ensemble every year. The guy isn’t an actor, and regardless of how simple Lady Gaga made it look, the transition here isn’t smooth. There are dramatic sequences that are pivotal to the entire film that fall apart because he’s not buyable. The few angry outbursts that the screenplay calls for are embarrassing to watch, especially when he’s alongside Pugh or Chris Pine – your spectacular professionals who save this from being a total heap of manure. Nobody besides those two is great – even Wilde herself feels like she doesn’t understand the text with her performance, which makes no sense when she’s the figurehead behind the entire vision.
The screenplay is an utter catastrophe. Within the first act, there are multiple hanging threads that incite the entire narrative, which never get answered, which isn’t even annoying; it’s just confusing. The middle third is a whole lot of nothing – an entire thirty-minute period where the film goes absolutely nowhere, including a painfully extensive scene of Harry Styles dancing badly intercutting with Florence Pugh having something of another mental breakdown. The third act is where one or two of the more obvious metaphors and ideas come to fruition, but there’s nothing exciting about those because, well, they’re remarkably noticeable from the off and oddly conceited – like Wilde is a genius for coming up with the idea of an unsettling suburbia. The grand reveal is followed up with a garbage action sequence filled with enough cliches to make you think the film became a parody. Everyone involved is so above the material here; it’s hard to believe that the same filmmaker did something as naturally stylistic and original as Booksmart when this is the follow-up feature.
I could sit here all day and tell you that Don’t Worry Darling has gorgeous cinematography or Oscar-worthy production design for its 1950s setting, costume, and make-up. I could say I like the do-wop soundtrack and some of its performances. However, when when the real intrigue about the film is this mystery it weaves, none of it means much when all that comes of it is a decades-old criticism of society with a podcast twist. It’s messy, and no amount of patio-door claustrophobia can change that. A cool idea, but it’s poorly executed, with leaps in narrative logic far too large to create any lasting final impact. If you want a 2022 cinematic spectacle that keeps you guessing until the last moment, go and watch Nope.
Connor Clarke Film 