Don't Worry Darling

Welcome to Victory! Here you can live the life you’ve always dreamed of. It is here where chaos is the enemy of progress. It is also here where you’ll find many living in peace and harmony within the suburban community. The wives stay home, cook and clean, while the husbands drive off into the desert each day to work on the mysterious, classified Victory Project. Even the wives aren’t clued into just what the Victory Project is. They do know that the Project and the town is run by one man, Frank (Chris Pine), whose motives remain unclear. I’m getting ahead of myself though.

An example of a couple in their prime are Alice (Florence Pugh) and Jack Chambers (Harry Styles). The two are hopelessly in love, going through the same routine as everyone else. Our primary focus though is on Alice. She begins to notice some strange occurrences around Victory: an egg cracking with nothing inside it, a plane crashing that no one else sees, etc. At first she chalks it up to pure exhaustion. Then something happens she can’t ignore…

Her friend, Margaret, begins to discuss her encounter in the desert and how something isn’t right about Victory and the Victory Project. Shortly thereafter, Alice witnesses Margaret take her own life. No one else believes Alice’s testimony about Margaret’s suicide. In fact, according to everyone else in town, Margaret is very much alive and in the hospital. “Wait, that can’t be! I saw her slice her own throat!” Alice exclaims. Soon, more strange occurrences begin to happen around Alice.

Maybe chaos is just the thing Alice is looking for after all…

There are, perhaps, many directions I could take with my review of “Don’t Worry Be Darling.” I could talk about the tremendous amount of gossip, rumors and just plain ugliness that surroundes the film. I could talk about how unoriginal the film is and draw comparisons between “Don’t Worry Darling” and “The Matrix” or other films that have tried to rehash the same story over and over again. The direction I am choosing to go, though, is the following…

“Don’t Worry Darling,” like SO many incredibly woke, leftist, ultra-feminist films that have come before, is so “politically in your face” (particularly in the last act) that you can’t help but let out a loud “Uggggg” in the theater like I did (trust me, I wasn’t the loudest person in attendance). The message of “Don’t Worry Darling” is two-fold: 1) men are suppressive and only see women as objects of desire, not people, and 2) all men are evil and not to be trusted, only women are truly virtuous. The messaging becomes blatantly clear. As one observer said, it “exaggerates, mocks and attacks 1950s American family life in the suburbs as if it were something very ugly rather than relatively good (more moral times, more people believed in God and went to churches, more were productive members of society, more people recognized the evils of atheism, Socialism/Communism, perverse sexuality, etc.).

I’m going to go off on a small rant here, and maybe I’m speaking for the minority, but when I go to the movies I want to escape the world, the stress, the drama, and the politics around me. I do not head to the concession stand, find my seat, and sit for two MORE hours of politics. If I wanted that, I could have stayed home. So please, Hollywood, I say this as nicely as I can… stop with your political messaging in films! We want to be entertained, thrilled, excited and leave feeling satisfied.

Don’t believe me about there being political messaging in this film? Think I’m making a mountain of a molehill? Well perhaps you would be interested in learning more about its who also produces and stars in it, Olivia Wilde. After all, the director’s worldview will often come into play in a film…

Who is Olivia Wilde?

(see insert below)

Wilde’s character Frank is based on her strange impression of psychologist and traditionalist author Jordan B. Peterson, someone Wilde strongly dislikes due to their opposing worldviews.

Wilde’s current partner is Harry Styles (famous English pop star) — androgynous performer — He’s worn a dress on the cover of Vogue, a skirt for an inside photo spread, and he often sports pearl necklaces and painted nails — openly supportive of the LGBTQ community — Gay Times even named him their LGBTQ Advocate in 2018.

Apart from the politics, truthfully, I’m not sure what audience “Don’t Worry Darling” was aiming for. Horror fans? Thriller fans? Suspense fans? Psychological? It doesn’t hit the mark in any of those categories, at least not for long. It’s just trying to be too many things at once: a mystery, a romance, a drama, a suspense, that I was literally on sensory overload.

Florence Pugh’s performance was relatively okay. There were moments I thought she was overselling her role, but then there were some moments, such as her brief run-ins with Frank, where I thought she really shined. Speaking of Frank, Chris Pine (who plays Frank) makes a sinister villain. His character doesn’t have much of a backstory but for this film I didn’t mind (maybe I was too focused on trying to figure out what else was going on). Lastly, the plot and pacing are lacking at times. It lags in parts of Act II and by the time I got to Act III, I was ready to head to the exit and see what was for dinner.

Content of Concern

Sexual Content/Dialog: Please be aware this is just a summary. A couple are seen having incredibly graphic sexual intercourse and sexual acts on a dinner table (viewers also this later on in a flashback). We also hear accompanying sexual noises with it. Couples are seen sexually at various times. A husband pulls down his wife’s underwear. There is another scene of graphic intercourse (someone is also watching this from behind a corner). Someone talks about “boys and their toys.” “Strippers” are mentioned. We see some strippers dance for a party at a nightclub in somewhat see-through outfits. Someone mentions how he wants to fit his wife into a martini glass. There’s a discussion about having sex in a car. Some other content is not appropriate to describe here.

Nudity: Stripper’s bare breasts (wearing only pasties). Women in small bikinis. A woman is seen a couple times wearing just a shirt (no underwear). Women wear cleavage baring outfits. A woman wears a swimsuit that is somewhat see-through (we also see her nude back when she dives in). A woman is seen naked in the tub multiple times. A male is seen without a shirt.

Violence: A character is pressed against glass till we hear her cheekbone crack. A girl smashes her head against glass till her forehead bleeds. A character slits their throat and commits suicide, falling off a roof in the process. We re-watch the suicide and aftermath two times. Someone is seen having electroshock therapy. A wife stabs her husband in the chest with a big kitchen knife. A boy is kidnapped in the desert. A plane crashes out of sight. People are seen having their eyes forced open, scanned and put under. A character is bloodily killed with a drinking glass. A character is hit with a car. There is a prolonged car chase and explosion. Someone is drugged against their will. A person wraps their head in kitchen wrap as if testing it for suicide. Someone is handled roughly.

Vuglarity: F**k (3), F**king (3), an obscene gesture is given twice, Sh*t (3), Son of a b*tch (1), A** (1)

Profanity: J*sus Chr*st (1), Chr*st (1), Oh my G*d (14), Oh G*d (3), My G*d (1), H*ll (6)

Alcohol: Characters drink alcohol in multiple scenes throughout the film. In two scenes, people are seen drunk (they occur at parties).

Drugs: Various characters smoke cigarettes.

Other: There are some incredibly creepy ballet dancers in a dream. A character is made to dance like a puppet in another scene. Someone is seen in a bloody dress.

There are no redeeming morals or valid lessons I can draw from this film.

Closing Thoughts

As soon as Harry Styles appeared on screen, all the young women in the theater I attended let out a huge scream. It was then I realized what the draw would be for many people to see this film, the two leads…Florence Pugh and Harry Styles. Neither of these individuals gave Oscar-worthy performances.

Even if they had had, the level of danger and gravity that exists with “Don’t Worry Darling” cannot be understated. The woke ideologies of the film are on full display, front and center, and are simply distasteful, making a mockery of the traditional family, the traditional lifestyle and even the Christian lifestyle as a whole. Additionally, there is a heavy level of graphic sexual content, nudity and alcohol, none of which do a discerning Christian any good.

Please stay as completely far away from this film as you can. This film isn’t for children, teens, adults or anyone. You’ve been warned.

• Sex: Very Heavy
• Wokeism: Very Heavy
• Drugs/Alcohol: Moderately Heavy
• Vulgar/Crude language: Heavy
• Violence: Heavy
• Profane language: Moderate
• Nudity: Moderate
• Occult: None

Learn about DISCERNMENT—wisdom in making personal entertainment decisions

Every time you buy a movie ticket or buy or rent a video you are in effect casting a vote telling Hollywood, “I’ll pay for that. That’s what I want.” Read our article

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