The alleged feud between director Olivia Wilde and her leading lady Florence Pugh would definitely have made for a more compelling film than what we got with Don’t Worry, Darling. Of the Mystery thriller about a housewife who questions her life with Harry Styles, burdens the audience with a lot: a worn-out story, a half-baked basic concept, an infinitely stupid twist and a completely miscast Harry Styles.
That’s what Don’t Worry, Darling is about, starring Florence Pugh and Harry Styles
At the Venice Film Festival Don’t worry darling shown in which Florence Pugh prepares eggs and bacon and a jet black coffee for her husband Harry Styles every morning. Pugh plays Alice (Like Alice in Wonderland, wink-wink), a housewife living in a dim memory of a 1950s laundry detergent commercial.
Don’t Worry Darling – Trailer 2 (German) HD
Alice prepares breakfast every day, waves goodbye to her husband Jack, and goes shopping down the street with the other wives. She is not allowed to work or drive a car. Few highlights of their lives are cunnilingus interludes by Jack and parties at Frank (Chris Pine), the head of the so-called Victory Project.
Alice doesn’t live in the 50s, as you can see from the modern language and diverse cast of the neighborhood at the latest. Her old-fashioned existence without female self-determination takes place in a encapsulated planned settlement away. All men work for Frank’s mysterious project. The women are left in the dark about the true intentions of the cult leader.
When neighbor Margaret (KiKi Layne, sadly wasted) steps out of line with the well-choreographed monotony, Alice begins to ask questions too.
The story of the thriller offers little imaginative and a silly twist
When Florence Pugh doubts her sanity in the cinema, it’s usually a joy, as Midsommar already showed. The Black Widow actress puts her heart and soul into Alice’s nightmarish quest for the truth. However, she fights with one over long stretches hackneyed story. You’ve seen them umpteen times in one way or another, in The Stepford Wives, The Truman Show, The Body Snatchers are coming and their many derivatives, for example.
© Warner Bros.
Don’t worry darling
Work on great role models, update them, vary them and question them – it all happens in Don’t Worry, Darling. Even dealing with the 50s setting shows where to go. The film does not get beyond the superficial scouring through clichés of patriarchal structures. Women make food, men go to work. That’s it. Don’t Worry, Darling isn’t meant to be a feminist doctoral thesis, but even a mystery thriller benefits from curiosity about the world it’s set in and how it works. Unfortunately that is missing.
When the club of the present is finally unpacked in Don’t Worry, Darling, it hits nothing. It consists of one incredibly stupid twist, after which the harmless thriller collapses completely. This “crowning conclusion” fascinates in three ways:
Poor Harry Styles didn’t deserve this
Once independent of twists and the hulls of political ideas that are in the plot of the thriller, one thing is fundamentally missing: feelings. And this is where poor Harry Styles must be held accountable. The singer, who also performed in Dunkirk, plays passably. Except he doesn’t share any chemistry with Pugh.
When Alice trembles for her marriage and love for her husband, when tears and pleas are exchanged, Pugh comes across as she most passionate shadow boxer in the world. Styles’ role in the aforementioned twist then takes it one step further and opens the question of why a pop star of all people was chosen for this Jack.
After all, the real pop star in the Victory Project is called Frank. The blustering messiah is played by Chris Pine, Quentin Tarantino’s certified favorite actor. In his few moments with Florence Pugh, he brings a sizzling tension to the film that is otherwise sorely missed.
Which seems a bit awkward, because Chris Pine plays the villain. But that’s just one of many problems that one cannot face “Don’t Worry, Darling” can wipe away.