What Would You Do To Live A Perfect Life? (“Don’t Worry Darling Review Article”)

November 16, 2022

What Would You Do To Live A Perfect Life?

By: Olivia Gordon

The new thriller about a 1950s housewife and her husband living in an experimental community, “Don’t Worry Darling”, is filled with outstanding acting, puzzling plot twists, and strong acts of feminism.

The movie faced a lot of backlash because of the drama that took place between the director, Olivia Wilde, and some of the actors in the movie just weeks before it was set to premiere. Sources say that Olivia Wilde had said nasty things about Florence Pugh and her level of acting compared to other actors in the film. Many people, along with myself, agree that Florence Pugh (Alice Chambers) and Harry Styles (Jack Chambers) saved the film despite all the friction between the cast.

The chemistry between the two on-screen was unmatched; they both portrayed their roles beautifully. In the film, Alice and Jack Chambers live in an experimental community where life is simply perfect, or so it seems. Throughout the movie, Alice starts to realize that there is genuinely something wrong about the perfect life she and many of the other women in Victory live, but she wasn’t the first one to uncover the truth about why they were in Victory. Played by Kiki Layne (Margaret) was the first to figure out the haunting truth about the utopian community they lived in, and once the creators of the community found out Margaret knew that it was a simulation, things started to go wrong. The creators claimed Margaret was “going crazy,” and Alice didn’t believe this for one second as she figured out the truth and started to “go crazy.” Towards the end of the movie, Alice figured out that when Jack “went to work,” he would actually leave the simulation and go to work in the real world to keep them in the simulation.

The level of acting shown by Florence and Harry as this all unraveled in the film was truly astonishing. Florence captured every emotion as she was once a weary overworked surgeon in the real world, then a estatic housewife with all her wishes granted. On the other hand, Harry expressed a guilt ridden, jobless boyfriend and a caring, money-making husband, on-screen both of them truly captured each and every emotion that came with their role. Compared to other outstanding films Florence Pugh and Harry Styles have acted in individually, this one truly shines light on the magic they bring onto the screen through their acting.

Olivia Wilde did a great job choosing her cast and writing the film. It had many unexpected plot twists that left viewers on the edge of their seat. One second we were watching Alice and Jack live their perfect lives in the simulation, then the next,we saw them in the real world lying in their bed, chained down with eye speculums. Many unexpected things started to happen after Alice figured out the truth about the progressive world they were living in. It was almost as if the system began to glitch, which left us wondering what would happen next. Even at the end of the movie, we were left with a cliffhanger, so hopefully in the future we get closure from this alluring plot.

As the film progresses, many acts of feminism were expressed by the wronged women.. During the film, we get flashbacks to Alice and Jack’s life before going into the simulation. We figure out that Alice was the only one bringing in a source of income, and that Jack felt bad about this which is why they ended up in the simulation. Towards the end of the movie, the women realized that they could leave the simulation, and go back to their lives that their crude spouses took away from them. Many of the women in the film advocated their rights, and equality they deserved after living through a lie. Alice in specific, had told Jack over and over how unfair and selfish he had been, this angered him. He tried to get Alice to understand his reasoning for putting them into this simulation, but Alice refused to waste her time in this false world, and Jack almost killed her because of it. However, Alice wasn’t going to let him get away this easily. He was suffocating her, and her only option was to fight back which left Jack dead. After Jack’s death, Alice was able to make her escape and go back to her own life. Many other women in this film whose husbands pestered them tried to leave, but Alice was the only one who escaped.

Overall, “Don’t Worry Darling” was an extremely captivating film with excellent actors that played their roles to a tee, many twists and turns with jumpscares that followed, and a strong emphasis on women’s liberation that was expressed in many different ways. Wilde did an amazing job directing this film, and hopefully we see more of this movie in the future.