Don’t Worry Darling: a Victim of Plot Holes and Half-Baked Characters
Photo by Jordan Hoffman
There have been few films I have been as excited for as much as I was for Don’t Worry Darling. After seeing Midsommar a few years ago, Florence Pugh quickly became my favorite actress, and I was eager to consume every piece of media she appeared in. That same eagerness was felt when I saw the first preview for D.W.D.; it was right up Pugh’s alley: a psycho-thriller where she plays the conflicted main character in a concerning and complicated relationship. The movie follows Alice and Jack Chambers (Florence Pugh and Harry Styles, respectively) as they navigate their lives in the recreated 1950’s-esc suburban community dubbed the “Victory Project.” The project, run by C.E.O. Frank (Chris Pine) is top secret, and none of the wives are privy to what their husbands do for a living. Alice begins experiencing odd events that make her question her reality, meanwhile everyone around her is convinced she’s going insane. The movie’s A-list cast seemed perfectly suited to give a stunning performance, but I am devastated to say that I was sorely disappointed. Don’t Worry Darling leaves much to be desired.
Before I discuss my problems with the movie, I do have one major praise. Florence Pugh’s character, Alice Chambers, was both excellently written and incredibly performed. Pugh does a truly impressive performance of portraying Alice’s decent into distrust and anxiety; the viewer experiences Alice’s confusion right alongside her and, thus, easily sympathizes with her. The writers spend the majority of the movie on Alice, crafting and expanding her character, mostly at the expense of other characters.
We receive very little information on the other characters in the movie. Jack Chambers is far more important to the story and needed more screen time. Alice, a stereotypical housewife, lives through her husband, yet we know very little about him. Styles does an okay job of portraying a conflicted, desperate husband, but many of his important lines are poorly delivered and become comical rather than fearsome. Frank, who literally runs Victory, doesn’t even get a last name. The characters in control are reduced to flat characters with little motive or variety.
The movie attempts to make a commentary on the patriarchy and how women are often ignored, discredited, and manipulated by the men around them. Unfortunately, many of these nuances are overshadowed by the plot holes and subpar acting. I was too concerned with understanding the plot to understand the societal implications of the film.
Spoilers Below – Skip to the last paragraph to avoid spoilers.
There are three major plot holes that irk me. The first are the earthquakes, the second is why Alice’s reality begins to deteriorate, and the third is the last act of Frank’s wife, Shelley (Gemma Chan), who kills her husband at the climax of the movie.
Throughout the movie, the inhabitants of Victory experience earthquake-like events. The first time it occurs is while Jack and Alice are at home and Alice is cooking breakfast; the second is when Alice and her friends are out shopping. Bunny (Olivia Wilde), one of Alice’s friends, says she doesn’t mind the earthquakes because at least she knows the men are working. This doesn’t make any sense, however, because at the end of the movie it is revealed that Victory is a simulation, and the men leave it every day to go to their jobs in the real world. If there is no industry in the Victory Project because the men literally leave the universe, then where do the earthquakes come from? It seems like a forgotten detail on the writers’ and director’s parts.
Similarily, we are never given a reason as to why Alice’s reality starts breaking apart. She is not the first woman to realize something isn’t right; Margaret (KiKi Layne) figured out what was going on and tried to escape but was caught and tortured to forget the truth. She is never the same and eventually kills herself. This does not cause Alice’s confusion, though, because it is implied that Margaret’s events happened far before the movie took place, and Alice didn’t believe Margaret until she herself realizes the truth. Alice seems to start seeing things randomly, which destroys the image of the perfectly crafted simulation that Victory is presented as.
Lastly, Shelley’s scene where she kills Frank out of revenge for trapping her in the simulation is more confusing than fulfilling. It seems like a Deus-Ex-Machina moment; there is nothing leading up to the murder that insinuates that Shelley is aware of Frank’s plans. Nothing in his phone calls that she overhears explains that she has been trapped in a simulation. All of her lines in the movie affirm the idea that she adores and fully supports her husband. It seems incredibly impractical that she would kill Frank without fully understanding what was going on. Her last line, “You silly man… It’s my turn now,” insinuates that she would be overtaking the simulation, or at least do something pertaining to the plot of the story. Instead, that is the last we see of Shelley, and her fate is never addressed.
Spoilers Over
Aside from plot holes, I truly feel like this movie has done nothing that has not been done better somewhere else. Much of the plot is motivated by a surface-level feminism. Olivia Wilde herself, who directed the film, presented the film as a commentary on the importance of female-centered pleasure, when that is the most inconsequential theme out of the film. I do appreciate the message the film tries to convey: men use women as instruments for control and women often lose their autonomy because of it. Unfortunately, this message was overshadowed again and again by poor writing, poor directing, and poor acting. It was a decent movie for casual viewing, but by no means is it revolutionary.
