From an alleged screaming match between director Olivia Wilde and starring actor Florence Pugh to accusations of Harry Styles spitting on co-star Chris Pine, “Don’t Worry Darling” has captured the media’s attention for all the wrong reasons.
The drama ensued with an interview Wilde gave in which she said she wanted to make a movie with “good sex” and “female hunger”. In a different interview, Pugh said she wasn’t happy that the movie was being reduced to its sex scenes (per Wilde’s previous comments), which validated fans’ suspicions of tensions between the two. Other dramas included Shia LaBeouf’s unexpected departure from the cast and frustration over Styles and Wilde’s alleged “disappearances” from the set.
Because of all this attention, I walked into the theater realizing I knew very little about the plot. Even while watching it, this feeling of confusion lingered. In the movie, Alice Chambers (Pugh) is living with her husband, Jack Chambers (Styles), in Victory, an idyllic 1950’s era community, when she starts to notice strange occurrences. The first half of the movie consists almost entirely of these occurrences: eggshells that don’t have any eggs inside and walls that collapse on Alice. These short scenes only added shock value, and even though they clued Alice into the lies the community’s leader, Frank (Pine), told her, these events were never truly explained when Alice uncovered the truth. I wish Alice and Jack’s backstory was better explained instead of the beginning dragging on for so long.
As for the sex scenes that Wilde was so proud of, there was no need for them. Rarely do sex scenes ever add substance to movies, and “Don’t Worry Darling” was no different. Furthermore, Wilde’s assertion about creating a movie with empowering sex scenes falls through. With all of the gaslighting, manipulation, and downright abuse of Alice and the other women in Victory, this movie was not empowering. I agree with Pugh on this one.
All the whisperings have certainly brought more viewers to the box office (all press is good press), but I’m positive that many have left the theater sharing a similar feeling of disappointment.
