“There is beauty in control. There is grace in symmetry.”
By the time the ladies of the Victory Project community were told this during their dance class, it was quite obvious that something is wrong with the seemingly perfect life in this utopia-like neighborhood created so immaculately by director-performer Olivia Wilde for her sophomore film, Don’t Worry Darling.
And although you know deep in your gut that something dreadful must be happening beneath this flawless façade, you still can’t help but admire how visually stunning this film is.
It’s so much different from Wilde’s Booksmart, which is a good thing because it shows her range as a storyteller. What Don’t Worry Darling does well is it managed to raise alarm bells in its audience, signaling something ominous—for this writer, at least—using only its visual elements from the get-go.
Set in the 1950s, in a community so sunny and cheerful its inhabitants look like they’re straight out of a print ad, the movie depicts the lives of husbands and wives who have the perfect life. Among them are the Chambers: Alice (Florence Pugh) and Jack (Harry Styles).
The couple lives a blissful life inside Victory: Jack, along with the other men in the neighborhood, drives off to work every morning while Alice cleans the house and cooks pretty much the same thing every day, and attends dance class and goes shopping (without having to pay for anything! Imagine that) with her gal pals during their free time.
It’s literally the perfect life.
The men are handsome and crisp-suited while the women are chic and elegant; and everyone always had a smile plastered on their faces and annoyingly polite at all times. (The neighborhood conjures up memories of scenes from Edward Scissorhands while the couples may slightly resemble Frank Oz’s The Stepford Wives.)
And that’s when you know that something’s amiss.
When things look too good to be true, they usually are. And it’s only a matter of time before cracks start to show.
Once Alice starts to experience weird flashes, she eventually begins to question her sanity and then her surroundings. And in a community where inhabitants are discouraged to ask questions and disrupt their idyllic existence (in Victory, their mantra is the enemy of progress is chaos) Alice is in precarious situation.
With the various allusions to chaos as this community’s kryptonite, the question now is how chaotic will things turn out? It’s obvious right at the beginning that things will go downhill at some point, and when we’re presented with an immaculate and polished setting, one would assume that the fallout would be catastrophic.
Don’t Worry Darling will sometimes feel like a distant relative of some movie you’ve seen before. It does share some themes with other films. It’s not entirely unique, but it is certainly fascinating, especially to viewers who put value in order and aesthetic.
But this definitely isn’t a scenario where style is favored over substance because the movie has a lot of things to say. And it managed to get its messages across well. Admittedly, there’s a slight room where things could’ve been fleshed out more. Nonetheless, the plot is satisfying.
You know what’s more than satisfying? Florence Pugh. She is a powerhouse in this movie.
Harry Styles was a bit of a letdown, which is ironic because he had a lot of material to work here. (He was better in Dunkirk, if you ask me.) Chris Pine was effective in that duplicitous role while Gemma Chan felt underutilized.
Don’t Worry Darling opens in PH cinemas on September 28.
