Director Olivia Wilde reaches out as the candy-coloured feminist gothic film Don’t Worry Darling kicks off. The movie takes place in the desert town of Victory, and everything looks wonderfully clean, including a mid-century house at the end of a cul-de-sac, a friendly neighborhood, and given that the story is set in her 1950s. , more diverse than expected. But Wilde quickly tells us something is different. Everything is so neat, so uniform, so perfect, including the woman’s smile.
Shy, bold, coquettish, and mocking, a woman’s smile carries a lot of meaning, and actress-turned-director Wilde certainly knows that. It can be a mystery, an invitation, a deflection. Sometimes it’s a reward, but it comes at a price. As Simone de Beauvoir writes in her Second Sex, “It is the smile of Sleeping Beauty that adorns the efforts of Prince Charming.” The men in the film aren’t attractive or brave, but the woman is always smiling and her lipstick mouth is wide open, so it’s a wonder her face doesn’t crack.
It takes a very long time for cracks to become seismic, but yes. Shortly after the movie begins, something begins to haunt Alice (Florence Pugh). She lives in a cul-de-sac and, like her other wives, says her goodbyes when her husband Jack (Harry Styles) drives to work. At night, with her cocktail in hand, Alice greets him. For most of the rest of the time, she cleans, polishes, vacuums, and does their house — the cinematography is appropriately bright and crisp — to the sound of the mystery man’s growling voice.
Interesting, nice setting. Everything is buffed to shine, including Wilde, who plays Bunny, one of Alice’s neighbors. This happy, glowing place has a touch of Stepford and a bit of over-the-top comedy. But it’s obvious and blunt, and early on the wives wave, all following similar choreography, and I flashed at the evil planet in Madeleine L’Engle’s novel The Wrinkle in Time. Houses, adults and children all look eerily nearly identical to the bouncy balls.
Alice has apparently fallen down a strange rabbit hole. But one of her problems with “Don’t Worry Darling” is that she’s immersed in the world Wilde has meticulously crafted, with colorful plywood, martini glasses, and James his Bond posters. It’s something you can’t let go of. As Alice drifts through her dream life, Wilde shows off this dollhouse, takes the character to Country’s Club on a trolley, and Jack’s charismatic boss, Frank (a silky and menacing Chris visits her Pine). Pads out of an antique issue of Playboy, except this one comes with his wife Sherry (Gemma Chan).
Frank and his male employees’ extreme respect for him suggests that there is more to this world than glossy exteriors. The movie stalls even if you notice . A second, third, and so on as Wilde embraces the visual motif of the circle, as Alice becomes pensive and puzzled, hallucinating, and less puzzled. Expanding it for the fourth time loses its punch and usefulness and makes it unintended. A cinematic metaphor that keeps coming back to the same point.
Wilde does some great work here, despite hitting the same notes early and often. (The script is by Katie Silverman, one of the writers of “Booksmart,” Wilde’s more successful feature directorial debut.) This is what, aside from Pine, is in a charming head. For her part, Pugh is too lively, too lively, a role that requires a late awakening at dawn. It’s too energetically full-bodied to begin with.
If Pugh’s acting never quite lives up to the glorious and satirical surface, it’s because she has no place to go. i agree, sexism teeth What Betty Friedan called “the heroine of the happy housewife” in her 1963 classic The Feminine Mystique takes the traditional female role prison house, but it’s shallow. There have been many cycles of feminist progress and sexist backlash since that book’s hit, but the current political climate and attacks on women’s rights have led to the rise of “Mad Men” and “Get Out.” They demand more than clever mashups between
don’t worry darling
Rated R for sex, language, and violence. Running time: 2 hours 2 minutes. at the theater.