Sometimes the behind the scenes scandal is better than the movie itself.
The movie is ‘Don’t Worry Darling.’ And there is nothing to worry about here as the movie is actually better than the scandal. In case you’ve been under a rock for the last year, the director Olivia Wilde (who also co-stars) fell in love and moved in with the films star Harry Styles (leaving her Ted Lasso husband Jason Sudekis after a 9 year relationship with 2 children). Also Florence Pugh, who is excellent here, supposedly had a rift with Wilde while Styles was just recently accused of spitting on co-star Chris Pine at the films premiere in Venice, all this evident in photographs taken in Venice. So, you ask, what is the film about?
Well it’s exactly ‘Valley of the Dolls‘ intertwined with ‘The Truman Show.’
Pugh is Alice Chambers and the wife of Jack Chambers (Styles) who have settled in the town of Victory for Styles new job. Victory is smack dab in the middle of a Palm Springs style dessert, surrounded by low rocky hills, and a place where the bus drivers stick to their routes and won’t go further afray.
But Alice starts to wonder about the women in the town, they are all too perfect, all practically slaves to their husbands all the meanwhile looking as beautiful as ever.
But questions pop up – exactly what does the company that Jack is working for actually do? And why does Frank, Victory’s CEO (Pine) have such a grip over everyone and everything?
One of the wives has a breakdown and her disappearance is covered up by all the men – but why Alice wonders, and she tries to get to the bottom of it, but it looked as by everyone as crazy. It’s all very mysterious , and Alice, along with the rest of us, want answers.
But we really dont get any answers, and the backstory to how Alice and Jack got to Victory is not credible, and knocks back the tension and drama that had just unfurled before. To the film and directors credit, it’s beautifully shot, right down to the immaculate homes and the daily cooked breakfast of eggs, bacon and coffee.
And Pugh is superb, perhaps her best role yet, while Styles can really act – is there nothing this man can’t do? ‘Don’t Worry Darling’, while has a few things to worry about, is a tension filled drama that will make you, just for a bit, forget about the behind the scenes drama.