Staff Reporter
Hanna Cruz
I try to immerse myself into content completely unbiased, but with the controversy surrounding this movie and the “miss flo” drama, I was a bit worried that my views about the movie would be swayed. Directed by Olivia Wilde (who also stars in it), the movie’s main leads include Midsommar actress Florence Pugh alongside singer/songwriter Harry styles. With a Rotten Tomatoes score of 38%, most of the media coverage and drama leading up to the movie’s release date of Sep. 23 tainted Wilde’s second film.
The story follows Alice and Jack, a young attractive couple that resides in the 1950s town of Victoria. Here the wives attend to house duties and relish in the luxuries the experimental town has to offer as they wait for their husbands to return back home from their top secret jobs. While all seems perfect, eventually the errors in the town’s construction start to play out and Alice grows weary of what is really going on behind the scenes. What does her husband do at work everyday and why did everyone meet their partners in the exact same towns?
While one could find the plotline to be slightly predictable, there is much to be enjoyed in watching the sequence of events unfold. Florence does an amazing job at guiding the viewers through her paranoia, and the beautifully paced tension in the film left me frustrated alongside her when the whole town and even her best friend were trying to gaslight her into submission. The usage of color and the cinematography in the movie is beautifully done as it does a great job at feeding into the fantasy of this made up world and even as the hysteria unfolds the warm yellow tones contradict the ominous events that occur. Although I did find the rhythmic imagery to be slightly diluted, I understood the attempt of the storytelling as it was meant to provide viewers with an uneasy feeling which is a common occurrence across physiological thrillers.
There have been conversations surrounding the plot of the movie on whether or not Frank’s attempt at giving Alice “everything she wanted” was out of love or from a place of unhealthy obsession. We see as he completely strips Alice of her livelihood without a choice and while one could argue that he had the best intentions, it’s clear that he was selfish and ultimately his own dissatisfaction led him to fall victim to the manipulation of the cult.
While I had mixed feelings about the movie, after I had finished, I could not help but leave the cinema pleasantly entertained and content in my choice of film. The movie sought out to do way more than it actually did and I think that is a big contribution as to why it saw such negative reviews. Wilde mentions the themes she was looking to touch up on included those of femininity and feminism. She does it in a way where it is not as apparent and instead aims to showcase it through the views of a woman’s pleasure in the film. This is also seen in the unity that is not outright spoken between Alice and Bunny as they’re all within their own circumstances for being there.
Don’t Worry Darling brings to the table talented actors, a plot line that has been seen before, but it is still good. It is not overly innovative, but it has beautiful cinematography. There are plot holes and questions left unanswered, but overall, it is definitely a well constructed film.
