‘Don’t Worry Darling’ movie review: Florence Pugh does her best to save this sinking ship

During the much-awaited, drama-fueled press conference don’t worry dear Cast member Harry Styles said, “My favorite thing about the movie is, like, it feels like a movie… like, you know, a ‘go to the theatre’ movie movie.”

I completely disagree. You can save yourself a trip to the theatre.

after peeling back Many layers of controversies regarding this film (Extreme tension between cast member Florence Pugh and director Olivia Wilde; Harry Styles appears to spit on cast member Chris Pine; Pugh not appearing for press conference) Community mired in misogyny and patriarchal gender norms. why is it Desperate attempt? Because none of these goals are fully achieved.

The film follows Alice (Pugh), a white woman living in a pristine, white-washed cul-de-sac with other white women, dressed in beautiful clothes to play the “perfect wife”. wears; Cook, clean, babysit, shop, gossip, drink, and go to ballet class, run by Shelley (Gemma Chan), Girlboss Gatekeeper in-Chief, and wife Victory Company and head of community, Frank (Pine ) )

Alice, who is married to Jack (Stiles), an extreme wife boy who likes to please her – sexual and otherwise – starts to go wrong. This is confirmed when another woman, specifically a black woman, begins to behave in mysterious ways. If the rest of the cast, Bar Shelley—whose character is less used anyway—were not overly white, perhaps this fantasy of a black woman telling a white woman her fears is valid, would not be reminiscent of Reverse. go (Jordan Peele’s 2017 Psychological Horror).

The remainder of the film is a string of poor acting, creepy hallucinogenic dancers and loose ends. it seems like don’t worry dear building towards something important; A major reveal or showdown between Alice and Frank, who controls not only the women but the men as well. Perhaps even a showdown between wives, to show how women fall into the malaise. Instead, the climax reveals a dull backstory, made worse by its randomness, brought about by a story that almost feels like an entry into sci-fi, without doing any research into the genre. goes.

The lack of cohesion in the acting is perhaps a major flaw in the writing form in this film, as each actor seems to have approached the plot differently. Pugh brings her back midsummerThe -esque despair and fear and stylization are clearly only there for star value, sex factor and sadly serves as comic-relief during tense scenes. Wilde is satirical and openly upset, which doesn’t work because she has extensive screen time with a hysterical Pugh, while the seriousness that Chan plays Shelley could have worked if the audience had the chance to care about her. There would have been a reason. Pine plays the awkward, creepy power-tripping guy well, but his character is poorly written, and just enough to move the narrative forward. All the other supporting men, the husband, could not have been in the film.

Is everything bad about the movie? No, but most of it is thanks to Pugh. Once her character begins to unfold, her connection to the rest of the pack weakens, leaving her far more difficult to perform than her co-stars. She weaves through paranoia, confusion, pain and anger effectively and sometimes all in one scene, without making it seem overly dramatic or unnecessary. In fact, the ending didn’t do justice to her story. Whatever happens through her character, at the end “watch the next episode” feels like, “We’ve had enough closure to end this movie.”

Despite all these flaws, the film could have turned out to be entertaining. But once the climax begins to settle in, and you realize that He The climax was, it leaves you bored, overwhelmed, and questioning why you didn’t just wait for it to hit streamers.

Don’t Worry Darling is playing in theaters now