[FILM] Don’t Worry Darling

It has been a while since I last watched a film that left such a deep impression on me but for the wrong reasons. Olivia Wilde’s latest film was ostensibly creepy to watch and at times even disturbing despite the supposedly good intentions of exploring feminism. I don’t care that it had Florence Pugh, Harry Styles or Chris Pine, Don’t Worry Darling is at best a 2.5/5 for me.

I have to caveat that my impression of the movie was already tainted by the drama from the show so my review might be somewhat biased. But I have to say that I tried to watch the film as objectively as I can but I really could not. In general, the movie felt incredibly odd and disturbing to watch. I watched it with an open mind, without any clue what the synopsis or spoiler but this only infuriates me when after 40 minutes in, I still have zero idea what the setting or plot was about. The beginning had some try-hard scenes which reminded me of Jordan Peele’s Us and Get Out and Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan except that it failed to deliver that effect.

The sex and voyeurism scenes was another heated topic of debate when the film aired in 2022. What was the role of Chris Pine’s character Frank? Why did he peeped at the intimate moment between Jack (Harry Styles’ character) and Alice (Florence Pugh’s character)? Was it to build a mysterious, powerful and creepy aura or was it just because sex sells and Olivia Wilde wants to target Harry Styles’ fanbase? If I really have to analyse, I would like to think that Olivia is trying to use these scenes to show how men like to control women and the voyeurism scene to show how women are reduced to just props to fulfil men’s sexual fantasy. But no I can’t. I can’t throw the idea that the sex scenes were introduced only as a fan service for Harry’s fans. The scenes made absolutely no sense to me.

The plot twist at the ending was good, however. I never expected the ending to be like that and I find it a huge pity that Olivia did not execute it well. The occasional ‘glitches’ Alice had could have been effective if they gave us more clues of the conspiracy instead of leaving everything till the end. By the time the plot twist happened, I already lost interest in the film and was busy shopping away.