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When talking to friends about the scandals, gossip, ‘conspiracies’ (a word that has ended up weirdly apt) that have surrounded, enveloped, overshadowed and in many ways fuelled the release of Olivia Wildes’ new film Don’t Worry Darling – it is fair to say that everybody is quite surprised that I’m relishing it all so much. I ask of them why, and they respond all very differently, I guess the biggest factor of course is those involved in this scandal are not exactly people hot on my radar. But then again that’s not exactly true either. I for one loved Wilde’s debut with Booksmart, and have been looking forward to this film for some time, the pitch alone of a Stepford Wives tale with a modern angle excited me, although I will take the blind guess without even watching this film that one should simply just rewatch the original Stepford Wives, or read the novel. Florence Pugh is one of our great current actresses and has never not sold a role for me wholly and completely. This collaboration was enough to get me excited. Chris Pine and so many other members of the ensemble too are some of my favourites. Then there’s the object of everybody’s fascination with Harry Styles, perhaps undoubtedly the biggest star in the world right now appearing here for his first major acting role. And yes, of course he was good in Dunkirk, but he was in it for ten minutes really running and really fighting against a water current, of course he was good. But then... piece by piece, story by story, ‘own shot foot’ after ‘own shot foot’, the film itself was no longer the thing we began to want. Darling has become something that we haven’t had in many, many years... a scandal we can relish. From this point on however we will be talking solely about the film, which is in itself one of the emptiest, vapid, irrepressibly and undeservedly smug and at times even baffling dumb movies I’ve seen in some time.
Let’s talk about emptiness then... This film is just The Stepford Wives. That’s it. There are only a few mere slight modernisations, but nothing near innovative, intriguing or contemplative enough to justify this film. Katie Silberman as writer and Olivia Wilde as director have re-teamed again after the wonderful success of Booksmart to branch into a wholly different genre, in this case, with severe limited success. It is without doubt for me that this film succeeds best in its first 20 minutes where we set up a world where some wonderful attractive performers play house and have a good old time drinking and partying. Some might dilute and say this was Booksmart’s biggest strength. When it comes to the rest that Don’t Worry Darling has to offer both writer and director fall repeatedly at each hurdle. Silberman’s dialogue is frequently so on the nose it could be a nostril and when it is joyously wicked or dark, it always pushed things too far into realms of ridiculousness at times. Wilde too whenever she has a handle on tone, manages to push things far too far, or attempts to intentionally melo-dramatise to little effect other than unintentional laughability. The cinematography is glamorous and sumptuous and intentionally staged, but time after time intrusive cliché montages of scenes and images that are so over used they feel almost parodist in style end up removing all intended effect. There are a handful of well crafted horror moments, but again they all completely fall apart when you think of things for more than a minute. I say empty because whatever the film is going for, doesn’t pay off and whatever crowds this film gets are just not going to get a film with any original thought.
Let’s talk about what works – this won’t be long. The majority of the critical body seem to agree that the film’s best qualities are a handful of great performances. I’d probably agree, but even then, to a point. Florence Pugh as our lead is great, as she always is, however the character has so many drastic shifts and unwarranted character dynamics that even her, one of our great current actors can’t pull off some of what is asked of her. Chris Pine is probably the best performance of the film, but is somewhat one-note. Is he incredibly good at this one-note and is this one-note all that he is being asked of with this character, yes to both, but is it one-note all the same, yes, is Pine to blame, not a chance. Lots of self-answered questions there, but ultimately it is to say that Pine is solid, but deeply under-used. Wilde here is a far better actress than she is a director, her character (albeit the vehicle for a twist I saw a million miles off, like the rest of the ‘twists and turns’ of this film) is frequently funny and dramatic and probably the best drawn supporting character of all. Then there’s Harry Styles. Is he good? No, not really overall. Is he sexy? Yes. Charismatic? To a fault. But that’s just not what this character should be in many ways it seems. It’s just all so horribly befuddled and he is so deeply mis-cast that one can’t pin everything to blame on him, like some thought would be the case, but he’s certainly not a positive for the film. See, even in my comments on what was positive, it only took me a few sentences to one again retreat to the negative. One can very easily use Styles as a figure of what this film succeeds at and fails at? It’s charming then and again, all over the place frequently and ultimately reaching emotionally. It’s messy and when you’re more or less remaking The Stepford Wives, it’s quite embarrassing that you did it so poorly.
There are times when one can see the qualities of all those involved working at their best strengths in Don’t Worry Darling. These moments are few and far between and the 4/10 empty mess that we receive with this film is something that in many ways has lived up to its scandals rather than be overshadowed by them, as for me as a critical viewer I found this film time and time again to be just as interestingly awful and messy as it’s enveloping scandals have been. Don’t Worry Darling is ultimately a derivative waste of everybody’s time, viewers and creators alike, serving nothing but an empty shell of a story we have seen not only perfected before, but done averagely better too. The film features some great performances that are fighting against the tide of this really frequently bafflingly bad film, but this film is to be viewed as a curiosity and the packaging and marketing that this feature was merely “influenced” by the films it’s wholly aping and re-making actually infuriates me.
P.S. Please I can only reiterate again to what extent one should not waste time with this film and go watch The Stepford Wives, a film which remains to this day as fresh, innovative, darkly satirical and terrifying as it was forty years ago. This film I doubt will have the shelf life of a carton of a milk.
Again Monday we will release a full spoiler in depth podcast on all our platforms.
- -Thomas Carruthers
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