What is Don’t Worry Darling? The name Olivia Wilde is far from foreign to you. If you’re a fan of mean but brilliant doctors walking with a cane, westerns with aliens, futuristic arcade games with motorcycles, or love stories with an AI housed in a smartphone, you must have already seen the actress. On the other hand, what you may not know is that she recently moved behind the camera, starting her career as a director with the excellent Booksmart, released in 2019 on Netflix. Don’t Worry Darling is therefore his second feature film, a bit more ambitious. We are talking here about a period drama, centered on a couple from an American experimental town in the 1950s, and more precisely on the couple’s wife, Alice, who experiences strange hallucinatory episodes and makes her question her daily life and her reality. More ambitious in terms of the breadth of the story, therefore, of the setting, of the costume, of the story. But casting too, since we are talking here about Florence Pugh, Harry Styles, Chris Pine, Olivia Wilde, Gemma Chan, Nick Kroll or even Kiki Layne. Except that for a few weeks, the film has suffered from a complicated promotion, largely due to more or less sterile controversies – but which will have been right about the marketing speech. Read also -> Well, what the hell is this with the movie Don’t Worry Darling? The fact remains that under the breath of Harry Styles’ supposed spitting, clashes between Florence Pugh and the filmmaker, and tons of rather funny tweets on the situation is a film, which will be released this Wednesday, September 21 in theaters. But that’s good It’s a pity that for a month these stories have overshadowed the film, because there are things to say. Although far from being the beautiful nugget that we would have liked it to be, in line with the elevated horror nuggets that we have had recently (we think of Midsommar, of course), Don’t Worry Darling impresses at many ways. He impresses because his ambition shines through on screen all the time. Visually, there is nothing to complain about. His staging is relentless, creating real moments of tension and managing to create a most anxiety-provoking atmosphere in a relatively short time. Not to mention the work of Matthew Libatique (known mainly for having photographed all the Aronofskys) which is splendid, perfectly capturing both the grain of the 1950s and the intention of the director in her story. But in a general way, from the decorations to the costumes, the representation of the time is bluffing, voluntarily bluffing. The problem intervenes rather on the writing. Because if the universe is enchanting, the message contemporary and more than pleasant, there is a real concern for balance. It’s hard to say more without spoiling the viewer’s pleasure, but we would have liked the climax to be more elaborate, the idea to be exploited more, everything to go further. The storytelling is sometimes too fast, sometimes too slow – mostly too slow, actually. In addition, there are sometimes unexploited tracks, where others are provoked in a somewhat random and gratuitous way, which causes a false rhythm and a characterization at times wobbly. Even on the bottom, there is a real questioning what the film wants to tell – that, we cannot blame Olivia Wilde for, since the screenplay is by Katie Silberman, Carey and Shane Van Dyke. The message seems clear, but in the end it is not and remains awkward throughout the last third of the film. There remains an extremely solid cast, carried by a Florence Pugh who is still just as perfect, and real desires for cinema which give hope for the continuation of the career of its director. What do we remember? The actress who stands out: Florence Pugh, as usual, the best. The main quality: its almost perfect cast, and its licked realization. The main flaw: its scenario, which has too many ideas but does not exploit enough. A film that you will like if you liked: Get Out by Jordan Peele, Black Swan by Darren Aronofsky, or even Midsommar by Ari Aster – so many great references. Black Mirror too. There is another more obvious reference, which we will avoid here. It could have been called: Paradise City The quote to sum up the film: “Olivia Wilde confirms that she is a director to follow closely, very closely”.
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