Don't Worry Darling Review
I’m late to the party but I was finally able to see one of my most anticipated movies of the fall, Don’t Worry Darling. A movie that I was intrigued by with the trailers, these types of movies are ones that I enjoy. But the most interesting thing about this movie is the kind of the press surrounding this movie, notably Harry Styles and Olivia Wilde. And what was going on behind the scenes during production of this movie. So how is this movie? Is it a good movie? Or like the reviews is it a bit more of a mixed bag? Let’s get started!
The Good:
And for me the best thing about this movie is the cast. And with this movie you have to talk about Florence Pugh in the lead role and she just commands the audience. She has to give a performance that is layered and complex. She needs to switch from charming housewife to curious to scared to worried in a matter of seconds, and she’s able to pull it off. And with Florence Pugh joining the MCU recently and getting an Oscar nomination, she is really showing everybody that she’s here to stay and she’s going to be the future of Hollywood. The other notable one to talk about is Chris Pine, who I just like as an actor. He’s somebody that is normally the fun and charming guy in movies. And here you see the darker side of him. I don’t want to spoil too much about the movie or his character but he just does a great job of convincing you that he’s this guy that is very mysterious.
It’s also a movie that just does a great job of building mystery and intrigue. Where when the movie starts, everything seems perfect and fine. But us as the audience knows that something is wrong here, something is not right and it plays that out for the entire runtime. And things keep getting weirder and weirder and the intirque just builds and builds even more. So for the first two thirds of the movie you are wondering what’s going on, what’s the big twist and where is this all going. Because honestly, up until the finale twist of the movie I wasn’t sure where this movie was going. And that’s what a movie like this is supposed to do, keep you interested and engaged until the final reveal of what’s going on. And I think a lot of that comes from Olivia Wilde’s direction and the way she’s able to pull everything together.
Another positive here is that the movie looks really good. The production design looks incredible for the movie; it does a great job of transporting you back to this time period of the 1950s. It also helps that the costumes also help transport you back to this time period. And given the mixed reviews for this movie I can’t imagine this movie will get much Oscar love. But I do think it has a chance at production design.
A couple more small things here, the soundtrack for the movie is really good. It’s a bunch of songs from the 1950s that are catchy and memorable. The play “Sh-Boom” was in Cars, and it’s fun to hear that song in a different movie. And what’s fascinating about the soundtrack is that the songs played tie into the mystery of the movie. Where when certain songs are played the lyrics tie into the movie almost. Song titles also tie into that as well. And it’s just very clever that way it’s done, it’s not just random songs from the 1950s but rather interesting songs. And I just appreciated that about the movie.
Finally, I found this movie to be entirely watchable. I like this genre of dark mystery thrillers that have a bit of David Fincher mixed with The Twilight Zone. And so I was intrigued by the trailers for that reason (and the cast) so this movie is very watchable for me. While it’s not great, it has its issues and it's not boring either.
The Bad:
This is a movie that raises intrigue and builds mysteries for the first two acts of the movie. So when you get to the third act of the movie it’s supposed to answer what’s going on, it’s supposed to give you the final reveal. And so these types of movies are built on the final answer for the movie, and with this movie…I’m not sure about the twist. I’ve heard a lot of people that did not like the ending to this movie and I can see where they are coming from. I can see why a certain percentage of people will watch this movie and be almost turned off by the twist. As for me, I’m kind of right there in the middle of it. I don’t think the ending was all that bad, it also just wasn’t all that great. It surprised me, the stuff they do in the finale I didn’t see coming and is quite shocking. If I was in charge of making this movie, I don’t think I would have gone down the direction they went down. I would have gone down a different direction, I don’t know what that direction would have been, but not this one. I didn’t hate the ending to the movie by any means, I don’t think this is a terrible ending. So my thoughts on the ending are so conflicted, and I really don’t know where this movie is going to sit with me in a year or two.
Tied to that, once it gives you the answer for what’s going on. It raises a bunch of questions that kind of disobey the logic of the movie. Like it will tell you things but once it does that, it will raise a lot of questions as to what that means. And it kind of pulls you out of the movie a good bit because it starts to have a LOT of plot holes once it’s all revealed and put on the table. And so when talking both about the twist it’s hard to talk about without going into spoilers. But it’s also tricky because it’s so mixed for me, all of my issues with the movies are so mixed in my mind.
The final problem here is Harry Styles’ acting. And once again I didn’t hate Harry Styles, he does have some solid moments of acting in this movie. But he’s not on the same level as other people in the movie. He’s a great musician and a great performer, but he’s a new actor. And in this movie Harry needs to have a lot of different emotions. He needs to be charming, mad, and upset in the same movie, sometimes in the same scene. And when he’s charming he can play it very well. When he needs to be mad and yell, he can pull that off too. He does get a couple of crying scenes that I don’t think worked, there’s a scene in a car about 60% of the way through the movie that didn’t work for me, largely because of his acting. Once again, Harry is not bad in the movie. I just think for this specific role, for how complex it has to be, they should have gone with somebody else.
Final Thoughts: Don’t Worry Darling was one of my most anticipated movies of the fall. And I was excited when I was finally able to see it on HBO Max. And as for me, I was really frustrated with this movie. I wanted to love it, I wanted this to be a top tier movie of the year. And while it has a lot of great things about it, Florence Pugh is fantastic here. The intrigue and the mystery surrounding everything is great. But this is a movie that is built on the final reveal and quite honestly, I don’t know what I think about the ending. I honestly don't know where I’m going to land this movie in a couple of months, or even a couple of days.
The Score: ????
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