Movie Review # 552: Don’t Worry Darling (2022)

Alright, alright, I know that there is another film that I watched before this film that I plan to also review. Forgive me if you think that I’m putting that review off just for the sake of doing so. Not the case. After giving it some thought, I figured that I’d just review the following film before we get to that one. So that being said, let’s talk about Don’t Worry Darling, starring Florence Pugh, Chris Pine, and some other people.

Plot: Set in the fictional city of Victory, California, Alice Chambers (Florence Pugh), Bunny (Olivia Wilde), and other housewives have their respective husbands who go to work everyday at a company called Victory Headquarters, followed by the wives preparing meals for themselves, and their husbands, and/or kids every night after work. However, after some time goes by, Alice begins to suspect that because the wives are strictly forbidden from venturing to Headquarters, that the husbands are hiding something. Will this be true, or will it turn out to be Alice’s imagination in the end?

So, I don’t know if this was based on a book, or if director Olivia Wilde was making a whole original screenplay. However, Olivia Wilde’s work here was okay. It’s not bad, but okay. First of all, we should be grateful that Olivia Wilde didn’t have any gay, or lesbian characters in this film like with Booksmart back in 2019. It was also cool to see Olivia Wilde play one of the main characters in this movie, Alice Chambers’ best friend, as a matter of fact. There was also some really cool action in this film as well. The movie also did a great job of showing how it is not always good to be trusting of people 100% of the time, and that people need to investigate situations whenever possible. Oh, and the performances from Florence Pugh, Olivia Wilde, Harry Styles, Chris Pine, and many more were definitely very well done.

Still, this film could have improved in quite a few ways. There were some scenes that seemed to drag a little too long at times. Some of these included a few sexual scenes. During those scenes, I can recall having to look away from the theater screen for a couple minutes, if not more. If you’re not a fan of scenes like those, you will more than likely do the same. Putting aside some of those inappropriate scenes, most of the characters besides people like the main character, Alice, aren’t all that likable. Not only that, but it’s almost like many of the characters that surround Alice seem to drag her down, rather than build her up. Seeing as we need more films with characters building each other up rather than criticizing others for making choices that one may not agree with, the way that this film was set up in that regard wasn’t exactly the best. The setup of this story doesn’t seem to feel all that well setup. Well, let me ask you guys a question. Some of you have read a novel by the name of The Giver, have you not? Well, I honestly wouldn’t have been surprised if Olivia Wilde may have drawn inspiration from stories like that one to make this film. Here’s the difference, besides that world not being in color, and the outside world world actually being in color. The Giver was also a novel, and took more time to set up the world that it had. As a result, Don’t Worry Darling almost feels like an inferior version of The Giver. Not to mention that we don’t seem to know how this alternate world in Don’t Worry Darling came into existence in the first place, you know?

And that’s my review for Don’t Worry Darling. Yeah, setting aside the fact that there were a few sexual scenes in this film, the film is still not all that great. The world building could’ve been better, none of the characters seem all that likable, except for Alice Chambers, and the story was just o we all okay. I would say that if you want to see this film, wait until it’s on video at Redbox, or On Demand, or someplace like that where it’s cheaper, and just see it then. Otherwise maybe just go, and check out something better to watch, or read like Lois Lowry’s The Giver, or some story like that.

Final Grade: D+