Disclaimer: “Don’t Worry, Darling” is an R-rated film.

“Don’t Worry Darling,” Olivia Wilde’s second directorial project, premiered on Sept. 23, 2022. With the depth of talent present in the cast alone, expectations for the movie were sky-high from the start. The psychological thriller follows the lives of Alice and Jack (Florence Pugh and Harry Styles) in a 1950’s American utopia. The community, known as the Victory Project, depicts life as all men attend work while the women enjoy luxurious homes, shops and dinner parties. Alice then begins to search for the truth about her community and the journey unfolds into chaos. 

While we both felt the movie had its strengths and weaknesses, our final opinions largely differed.

Maggie’s Opinion:

While I wouldn’t classify this movie as a horror film, it definitely builds up to a certainly horrifying conclusion. Throughout the film, the sense of impending doom is almost suffocating. The soundtrack coupled with eerie, uneasy imagery builds a narrative that inevitably comes crashing down. While watching, the closing credits coincided with audible gasps of shock from myself and the rest of the audience. I can only equate the ending to placing the last piece of a complicated, confusing puzzle in place. Suddenly it all made sense. Satisfying while simultaneously disturbing, it was an experience I thoroughly enjoyed.

By far, my highest compliments of “Don’t Worry Darling” extend to none other than Florence Pugh. With actors like Chris Pine, Olivia Wilde, Gemma Chan and Nick Kroll, one could easily be overshadowed. To put it simply, that was not a concern for Florence Pugh. Despite other notable roles in “Little Women,” “Mid Sommer” or “Lady Macbeth,” the facial expressions, body language and lengthy monologues made this performance the one to beat. On the contrary, my biggest critique extends to her co-star, Harry Styles. While I frequently enjoy his music, I wouldn’t say his talent translates to the world of film. Displaying exaggerated emotions on screen seemed to require immense amounts of effort, which is certainly not something the audience should recognize. Within the cast alone, there were much more qualified actors, such as Tony-winning actor Ari’el Stachel, to play the part of Jack Chambers. While his performance wasn’t notably horrible, it was not on par with the likes of his co-stars. 

All in all, the film was excellent and kept me on my toes. I think the originality of the plot, some exemplary performances, and most notably, the imagery and sounds, made for a film I would highly recommend.  

Charlie’s Opinion:

I previewed “Don’t Worry, Darling’s” harsh reviews before entering the theater, but still had an optimistic view walking in. But, unfortunately, this film was exactly like how all the reviews described it: horrible. This film had horrible writing, an unoriginal story and was an overall poorly executed film. 

The film’s lack of originality and Olivia Wilde’s bad direction were its biggest flaws. Olivia Wilde had an alright debut feature film with “Booksmart,” but it wasn’t anything special. It was no different with “Don’t Worry Darling” as I felt there was no directorial spice added to the film by Wilde, and like I was just watching films I had already seen. 

Another one of the film’s major flaws was the randomization of certain scenes. The film’s writer (Katie Silberman) included scenes just to provide visual value, but nothing to the actual story. Without listing specific scenes or shots, there were moments when Silberman wrote things that were just too artistic and past her perceived range of abilities. Of course, Wilde and other contributors to the film could have executed her vision poorly, but Silberman just didn’t seem to have the experience necessary to write in this genre of sci-fi/thriller. She included scenes that were too epic for the tone of the film and disrupted the fluidity of the film’s dynamic. The genre of the film oddly switched multiple times throughout. 

Although the film was not filled with complete dreadfulness, as the score was a notable positive of “Don’t Worry Darling,” there were lots of musical motifs between all the original songs, with eerie voices and deep drums, adding to the film’s darker tones. Although this film was shot well and included some nice twists and turns, nothing was incredibly noteworthy for me. 

My review may make “Don’t Worry, Darling” look like one of the worst movies ever,  but that isn’t necessarily true. This film just didn’t leave a lasting impression. In my opinion, Olivia Wilde should stick to what she does best: acting. 

While it is safe to say that we largely disagree, the movie certainly provoked strong reactions in us both. The soundtrack was a big hit regardless of our overall feelings towards the movie, however, we encourage you to see it for yourself. To Maggie, it’s worth a watch, but to Charlie, you could do without it.