We Need to Worry, Darling

For a movie with a bunch of drama surrounding its press week, it seems as if that was the only drama to be a part of the film. Spoilers ahead. 

“Don’t Worry Darling” is the latest Olivia Wilde-directed film to hit the big screen. Starring Florence Pugh, who some may know from “Midsommar” or “Little Women,” and pop sensation Harry Styles, this film had the makings of a blockbuster. 

Unfortunately, there was nothing in the movie to exude that grand feeling one may have expected going into the film. 

Initially, I had no clue what the film was going to be about. Leaving the film, I still have no clue what it was about. 

“Don’t Worry Darling” starts off in the perfect 1950s society, where the men go to work at the Victory Project every day and the women stay at home to be the perfect housewife. They cook, clean, shop, and gossip. 

These wives have no idea what their husbands do for work, as it is top secret information to be kept between the men in this society. The women do not ask any questions, and only need to follow one rule. Do not go into the desert. 

The film has a bunch of couples that it follows, but the main storyline follows Jack and Alice, played by Styles and Pugh, respectively. 

The two are a young couple, who cannot get enough of each other. Not feeling pressured by everyone around them to have kids, they are just enjoying themselves in this society, even to the neighbors’ complaints. 

 However, there are undertones that prove that while this town may seem perfect, not everything is as polished as one would

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think. 

We are introduced to Margaret, who is out of touch with everyone. She constantly repeats that they do not belong there, and they need to escape, and everyone just shrugs it off, saying she’s unwell. 

Herein lies my first major issue with the film, this just comes out of nowhere to start the tension. Later, we learn more about why Margaret is this way, but it just felt like an odd placement that this character had significance, but we did not know why yet. 

What also bothered me was that in the perfect 1950s society, the one character that everyone did not trust was the one African American woman in a town full of white people.

Alice finally starts to question the things Margaret is saying, and then when she notices a plane crash, she takes action and goes into the desert to help these people, going against the rules. 

In the desert, this weird sequence occurs where the screen goes red and then old 1920s dancers enter the screen, and then we are back to reality. 

“Don’t Worry Darling,” had the worst editing I think I have ever seen in a movie, and it showed in this sequence. Things were almost just being thrown onto the screen, I could barely understand the monologue being spoken underneath all of this, it just was random. 

Also, I could never understand anything in these frequent sequences. If I was supposed to be learning something, I was not. It was just random dancing that made little to no sense to the plot.

Well, if one can say this movie even had a plot at all. 

For the bulk of the movie, there was zero plot given. Something was happening, but it never quite came across what was, which was frustrating. The world was crumbling around Alice, but there was no information being given as to why. 

Pugh is an outstanding actress, but that star power that she possesses was just not in this role. The writing of this movie was terrible, there was nothing in the script to give any character anything that stood out, it just felt like a boring episode of “The Real Housewives.”

Even with a bad script, Styles somehow made everything worse. There just was never a good moment that showcased Styles’ acting abilities. 

Every scene had a different accent, which is weird because his character was British, and the facial expressions felt like a high schooler performing in a Shakespeare drama.

Also, we barely got to know anything about his character, or truly any character at all. The movie made it seem like we should already know these people. There was no information given on anyone until the end. 

Once Alice starts to finally figure things out a good hour and a half into the movie,it starts to pick up, and we finally are introduced to these people and get solid plot points that are interesting. 

But, as viewers, we almost get too much at once. Now every character had a major storyline, so much plot was revealed, and everything was happening all at once. It was exciting, but also ruined the pacing. 

All of this exposition could have been featured at the beginning of the movie. It started off like a turtle running a marathon, then out of nowhere, we were sprinting towards the finish line. 

I understood everything that was happening after the world was revealed for what it truly is. Even if little hints were given throughout, this movie could have benefited way more. I could not even process the plot before it started to slowly get ruined again. 

“Don’t Worry Darling” had 25 minutes of a decent movie, the rest was still and dull. While at times it made you think about misogyny in a new light, it backtracked on itself almost instantly. 

Too many messages were trying to be conveyed, and they all left me questioning more. Wilde missed this film, and now I know why Pugh did not want to be associated with the film upon release.