The trailer for director Olivia Wilde’s new Utopian psychological thriller Don’t Worry Darling, set in a parallel 1950s American Dream, suggests a decadent tale of the battle of the sexes within synthetic domestic bliss. Scratch off the gloss and block out the blue skies, and something akin to sinister, cult-induced solitude lurks beneath, complete with a touch of The Matrix ideas thrown in. Like the characters living in the Victory Project, a new experimental community built in a desert, viewers are also invested from the start because we “believe in the mission” this film has set up to deliver from its promised hype – Wilde and lead actor Florence Pugh’s behind-the-scenes squabbles aside.
Pugh plays smart and fun-loving Alice, wife to Harry Styles’ engineer character Jack. The latter goes to work with all the other neighbourhood men like clockwork each morning, waved off by their doting wives, and driving to a mysterious base in the desert that houses a glamorous company said to be “changing the world” – or so the slick PR campaign insists.
With social functions – like ballet lessons, shopping, keeping house, and harmless housewife gossiping over a cocktail with friend Bunny (Wilde), all Alice has to worry about is wiping the odd smear off her glass windows, looking fabulous, and cooking the evening meal, all ready for Jack to walk through the door and sweep her off her feet (literally and carnally).
However, when Alice’s former friend and neighbour, a dazed and troubled ‘Stepford Wife-like’ Margaret (KiKi Layne) is silenced after public outbursts then vanishes after a serious incident, Alice’s idyllic lifestyle experience begins to unravel. After she spots a red propeller plane about to crash in the desert mountains one day, curiosity gets the better of her, and her nightmarish visions intensify. What is the disturbing secret that project leader Frank (Chris Pine) is hiding beyond community lines?
The cast list alone is enough to give Booksmart Wilde’s new thriller a fighting chance. Styles fans will naturally be serviced and perhaps, blissfully oblivious to his misplaced casting as Jack – Shia Labeouf was unavailable. Dubious acting abilities aside, as well as the token stage performance in one scene when Jack celebrates getting a company promotion that looks straight out of the Treat People With Kindness music video, the biggest issue with his casting is having Styles play an Englishman in an American Dream movie setting that just feels (and sounds) bizarre. No amount of boyish charm, good looks, and chanelling his best James Dean impression in fancy ’50s cars can rescue the lad from Redditch in this, even after his character’s big reveal.
The most exciting part is absolutely Pugh’s powerhouse performance that drives the narrative and conjures enough suspense and further intrigue. Whether Wilde likened watching Alice’s experiences on screen as feminist pleasure is debatable, the fact is once the mystery of the Victory Project is (sort of) solved, it is highly questionable if it is anything but. The final moment in the film suggests female liberation, but the confusing narrative and red herrings – like the plane – render Alice’s anxious journey convoluted at times and will have some viewers scratching their heads.
Indeed, there is a far greater screen story here that is crying out to be addressed in a more succinct and clever fashion; one of the growing dominance of the virtual world on humans – think incels. Carey and Shane Van Dyke’s story begins that uneasy debate and screenwriter Katie Silberman tries to run with it here, but the trouble is there are too many grey areas in this film that need more focus and better scripting. Featuring Alice’s flashbacks of beautifully-shot Busby Berkeley-esque dance sequences will not cut it either to depict her entrapment, nor will settling for the age-old macho chauvinism blaming either, regardless of how despicable and puny some of the male characters are in this.
That said one of the most scintillating scenes is where Frank challenges a roused Alice during a dinner party at her home, only for heightened proceedings to never quite reach fruition, but instead be quashed by personal attacks, particularly by Frank’s wife Shelley, played by Gemma Chan who channels her true Humans mode in this film. Sadly, this climax is what we were waiting for too.
Much like the Victory Project in the story, Venice winner Don’t Worry Darling is captivating to watch on the surface with its visually hypnotic cinematography, but delve deeper for answers, and most are absent. It is not that one film can change the world, but when much promise is marketed by its team, you cannot help but feel as cheated as Alice does in the end, with the real core story featuring in the closing scenes.
