I’m Worried Darling

After its premiere at the Venice Film Festival, a five-minute standing ovation, and the immense amount of on-set drama, Don’t Worry Darling quickly became one of the most anticipated films of 2022.

The film takes place in a 1950s suburban-Esque town, where everything is seemingly perfect. During the day, all men go to work at the elusive “Victory Project,” while the women stay home performing housewife tasks ‘The Donna Reed Show‘ style. This routine continues every day, until one of the wives, Alice (Florence Pugh), witnesses a tragedy that causes her to question the reality she lives in.

Don’t Worry Darling first made media attention with the announcement of its cast. The film stars Florence Pugh and Harry Styles as the leading couple Alice and Jack. Chris Pine, Gemma Chan, Nick Kroll, Kate Berlant, KiKi Layne, Sydney Chandler and Olivia Wilde make up the rest of the ensemble.

In addition to acting, Olivia Wilde both directed and produced the film, making it her second directing debut alongside the phenomenal coming-of-age film Booksmart (2019). The original script for Don’t Worry Darling was written by Shane and Carey Van Dyke and rewritten for the official screenplay by Katie Silberman.

Wilde described this film as “The Feminine Mystique on acid,” and credited Betty Friedan’s book as a source of inspiration. That’s where the movie falls short. KiKi Layne’s character, Margaret Watkins, is the catalyst for the film. Her death is what causes Alice to question their reality and drives the plot. For such an important character and talented actress, it’s confusing as to why she is on screen for such a short amount of time.

That question was answered when Layne made a post to her Instagram, saying, “The best thing about #DontWorryDarling is that I was lucky enough to meet @arielstachel. [Ari’el Stachel who played Ted Watkins] They cut us from most of the movie, but we[‘re] thriving in real life.” This was upsetting as Layne was the only Black woman with a role, and an important one as well. Don’t Worry Darling‘s “feminist” message overall failed at including intersectionality, contributing to the white-feminism trend in Hollywood.

The only attempt at saving grace for this film was the performance by Florence Pugh. Pugh is no stranger to playing complex female characters, as seen in Midsommar (2019) and Black Widow (2021), and she delivers again as Alice. Pugh brings grace and terror collectively to the screen and is the best part of the movie.

In hindsight, Don’t Worry Darling did not live up to its internet expectations and frankly left me a little worried.