“Don't Worry Darling”

Movie Review

Adapted from a spec script by Carey Van Dyke, Shane Van Dyke, and Silberman, Don't Worry Darling is a 2022 American psychological horror movie that is directed by Olivia Wilde. Chris Pine, Harry Styles, Gemma Chan, Wilde, Kiki Layne, and Florence Pugh are among the cast members. The story centers on a housewife who starts to think that the town's controlling man is hiding a deadly truth from the locals while she lives in a picture-perfect business town.

The movie Don't Worry Darling came out in September 2022. Critics gave it mixed reviews, praising Pugh's performance, the photography, and the production design but criticizing the storyline and direction and pointing out how similar it was to other works in the same genre. The movie was a financial hit.

In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Alice and Jack Chambers are a couple who reside in the optimistic company town of Victory, California. The men leave for work every day at Victory Headquarters in the desert nearby, where their wives are forbidden from going or even inquiring about their husbands' jobs. While the men are away, the ladies relax and indulge in comforts while taking care of their homes.

Along with her best friend Bunny, Alice spends her days with other wives. One resident, Margaret, has become a pariah after having a mental breakdown and taking her kid into the desert, where he appeared to have died. Margaret believes Victory took her son as a form of punishment for disobeying the rules, but she maintains that she did so because she had a breakdown. Alice observes Margaret's husband attempting to administer her medication following an outburst at a party held by Victory's mysterious founder, Frank. Frank is later seen secretly watching as Alice and Jack engage in sexual activity in his bedroom.

Alice notices a plane crash in the desert while riding the trolley across town and runs to assist. She comes across Headquarters in the middle of the desert, touches one of its mirror-like windows, and then, before waking up that night at home, has bizarre hallucinations about another existence. The next few days bring on further bizarre incidents, and she gets a call from Margaret who says she's experienced similar things. Alice dismisses Margaret and then sees her cut her own throat before falling from her roof. Alice encounters odd visions and is carried away by men wearing red jumpsuits who work for Frank before she can reach Margaret's body.

The town doctor, Dr. Collins, confirms Jack's assertion that Margaret is simply recovering from a domestic mishap when he pays them a house call. Jack denies Alice's allegations. When Jack refuses to fill Alice's prescription for medication, she snatches Margaret's extensively redacted medical paperwork from his briefcase. As Alice's paranoia increases, she has a breakdown in the restroom during a corporate celebration in which Frank promotes Jack. Alice tries to express her suspicions to Bunny, who is trying to console her, but Bunny reacts violently and says that Alice is endangering their ability to live in Victory.

Alice and Jack extend an invitation to supper to their neighbors, with Frank and his wife Shelley being the honorary guests. Privately, Frank confirms Alice's concerns and mocks her by telling her he likes it when she questions him. She tries to expose him after dinner after hearing his confession, but Frank makes her seem insane to the other diners, making Jack worried about her deteriorating mental state. In the aftermath, Jack pretends to agree when Alice begs him to leave Victory but instead has Frank's men kidnap her. During the electroshock therapy that Dr. Collins makes Alice through, she has visions of herself in the current day, struggling to make ends meet as a surgeon and cohabitating with the unemployed, indolent, and resentful Jack.

Alice is welcomed home and resumes her normal life after her treatment, but she realizes the visions are her real memories, and Jack finally admits the truth: Victory is a simulated world created by Frank, where Jack and the other men live their version of perfect lives; the women they have forced into the simulation are unaware that their lives, children, and Victory itself do not exist. When the males went to work every day, they were actually logging out of the simulation, trapping the ladies inside. Jack claims that Alice was unhappy in the real world and that in Victory, they can both be happy, but she is enraged that he essentially imprisoned her intellect while leaving her body to rot. Jack begs for pardon wildly, clutching Alice, who is struggling to breathe. In both the simulation and reality, she fatally smashes a rocks glass over his head, killing him.

Frank is instantly informed of Jack's death, while Bunny locates Alice and says that she has always suspected Victory was a simulation, but opted to stay to be with her children, who perished in real life. She gives Alice the go-ahead to head to Headquarters, which is where the men's daily exit portal from the simulation is located. Once there, Alice quietly addresses the nearby residents, which makes the other ladies realize something is amiss and confirms their husbands' fears. Alice is pursued by Dr. Collins and Frank's men as she flees in Jack's car, causing them to collide. Meanwhile, Shelley murders Frank and takes over Victory. When Alice arrives at Headquarters, she has one more vision of Jack, but rushes to the windows and places her hand on the glass just as Frank's men approach, seeing terrible pictures intermingled with visions of herself in the real world. All that can be heard is Alice gasping for air as the television fades to dark.

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