Don’t Worry Darling Review: Florence Pugh’s Nightmare Becomes the Audiences’

September 21, 2022October 1, 2022 Stephanie Young 1 Comment

Whether you’re a film fan or not, Don’t Worry Darling seems to be one of those movies that have expanded above the cinematic world into pop culture even before its premiere date yesterday. The day finally arrived to put the news and presumption of drama behind us and let the film speak for itself. Directed by Olivia Wilde and based on a story by Carey Van Dyke, Shane Van Dyke, and Silberman, the movie stars Florence Pugh and Harry Styles in the lead roles.

Don’t Worry Darling follows Alice (Florence Pugh) and her husband Jack (Harry Styles), who live in an “idealistic” community where the men go to work every day as part of the top secret “Victory Project” they have been assigned to while their wives stay home and do conventional 1950s household chores and duties. When Alice witnesses a tragedy dealing with one of the wives in the community, she begins to question what the Victory Project is and what they are all doing in this community in the first place.

Join Olivia Wilde, Harry Styles, Gemma Chan, Nick Kroll and more for Don’t Worry Darling: The IMAX Live Experience. We’re showing an exclusive live Q&A followed by a special advance screening only in IMAX on September 19. #DontSpoilItDarling 🎟️ ➡️ https://t.co/MSnb6totIo pic.twitter.com/IqVQYaqPiv

— IMAX (@IMAX) September 7, 2022

That being said, Don’t Worry Darling is an absolute train wreck. First off, this psychological thriller has no unique ideas or themes that have not been recycled before. If you have any experience with films, it is beyond obvious where the story is going and what we are headed towards. As a result, the film spends an hour and forty minutes building up just to end exactly where I expected we would. Sometimes predictability is not necessarily a bad thing as long as the journey to get it is worthwhile. This is not the case with Don’t Worry Darling as the build-up is so incredibly dull I was shaking in my seat to finally get to the inevitable end.

#DontWorryDarling new @Dolby poster 👇

In theatres this September! pic.twitter.com/Q6kHOpFyst

— BINGED (@Binged_) September 13, 2022

For me, the death of a film is when the entire thing is a means to an end, where once you know the “twist,” it is unwatchable for a second time. Because Don’t Worry Darling is unoriginal and dull, the entire film banks on the excitement of the twist at the end, which is the mark of a poor product. What is even worse is when you already know the ending twist, and even that is not exciting.

Olivia Wilde tries to create a feminist film with themes of control over women from their male counterparts but fails miserably by making the “feminist” aspects too heavy-handed that it feels like we are being beaten over the head with the same feminist ideas that we have heard a million times before. Not to mention her attempted feminism quickly collapses in on itself as there is one single black character in the movie, who she decides to portray as the crazy and unstable wife who ****spoiler***** is the first to die with about four lines in total before the event. Talk about white feminism at its finest for a director who preaches the need for women to be heard.

Florence Pugh is a brilliant actress and does a decent job in the film, as much as she can with a script as poor as this. Chris Pine and Gemma Chan are so underutilized that they have no room to give any sort of meaningful performance. Harry Styles flops disgracefully. Having no issue with Harry whatsoever as a person, the poor guy just cannot act and should have never been given such an opportunity just because of his fame and ability to get millennial women in seats at the theater. Don’t Worry Darling falls flat on all ends and unfortunately is one of the year’s worst films.

‘Don’t Worry Darling’ Rating – 1.5/5

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Stephanie Young

Senior Associate Writer at Just for Movie Freaks

Stephanie is a huge film fanatic, a librarian, and a baker! And when she isn't busy doing these activities, she is running around with her Australian Cattle Dog!

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