Movie Review - Don't Worry Darling

 

It kind of goes without saying that no matter how hard people try, some films will have some controversy during the making of them. Such examples include The Shining, which has been long debated as to whether Stanley Kubrick treated his cast well or not. Then there's Jaws which, to this day, is widely regarded as one of the most challenging films that Steven Spielberg made because of him wanting to shoot scenes on open water (instead of a much more manageable tank) and the mechanical shark not working. More recently, there's The Lone Ranger which, while not completely terrible, faced a lot of budget problems and many of the reviews for the film are to do with the budget more than the quality of the film. Although all those examples did pay off in the end in some way, it can be a big deal for a lot of people and these troubled things often put the films in doubt. Whether it's good or not, and whether the people involved would still want to continue doing what they do after it. This brings us to Don't Worry Darling, which also faced its share of controversy despite the irony of the title. Directed by and starring the highly controversial (but otherwise very good-looking) Olivia Wilde, it's a film that, for many people, they just want to really like it. But we shall see as we look at the second film I have seen that stars a Harry with many Styles:

It's the 1950s, and we are in a company town called Victory, based in California. Alice (played by Florence Pugh) and Jack Chambers (played by Styles) are a young and happy couple living there in this town created and paid for by a mysterious company of the same name as the town which Jack works for. Every day, the men go to work while their wives stay home to relax, clean and prepare dinner for their husbands. The wives are discouraged to not question the work the husbands do and to not venture out to Headquarters due to the supposedly dangerous materials the company works with. When things take a turn for the worse for neighbour Margaret (played by KiKi Lane), Alice soon begins to question everything going on at Victory. What's Victory's true purpose, why the wives can't ask questions to the husbands, and more as this mystery unrolls into potentially dangerous territory.

Like the friends I went with to see it, it's a film that I really wanted to like and the general premise of it has been done before and can be done in very creative ways. But alas, it becomes very predictable. The acting is good for some such as Pugh, but laughably bad for others such as Styles. The visual style is generally very good. But overall, it's another film that I wouldn't desperately go out to buy on home media. It's so confusing, and I just can't get over the controversy that came from it. 6/10