Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Cast: Florence Pugh, Harry Styles, Chris Pine, Olivia Wilde, Gemma Chan, KiKi Layne, Nick Kroll, Sydney Chandler, Kate Berlant, Asif Ali, Douglas Smith, Timothy Simons, Ari’el Stachel, Steve Berg, Daisy Sudeikis, Marcello Reves, Dita Von Teese.
Wouldn’t we all like to be happy and carefree, to see the world through the lens of contentment and satisfaction. The world at ease is attainable, but would we, like the passive Eloi that were food for the Morlocks in The Time Machine, soon be fodder for someone else appetite, not necessarily our flesh being consumed, but our minds, our souls, being stripped of anything that was fiercely individual, being human.
The time is upon us, we are on the edge of an AI nightmare/cornucopia where humanity is a slave or free, depending on your ultimate point of view, and it is with power ensured that the outcome of who succumbs and who resists the urge to join in the false narrative.
Don’t Worry Darling bring Katie Silberman’s adapted script and Olivia Wilde’s direction to the fore as the suspense of undisclosed pleasure delivered by the discontent rears its head.
The question of what made for a perfect period in which to live in, one arguably fought with dedication by the post war boom in 1950s United States history, when the possibilities were endless, where the idea of a measured, but homely society where the psychological warfare against the U.S.S.R. was a constant noise in the background, replayed in such a way that it was almost aggressive, and yet painted with a smile on the similarity of each car, each perfectly crafted hairdo, and like-minded hand on heart declaration to the American dream. That question is at the heart of the film, and one that brings to mind the Billy Joel imagery that describes the song Allentown.
“If we work hard, if we behave…”, that last note, to be part of a society we must toe the line, never waver from the political ideology, never question, never walk where it is forbidden, and yet that goes against the essence of being human; we are meant to occasionally push the boundary of what others may feel is a rigid law, for how else do we learn what works, and what must change.
It is to the sense of graft that gives Florence Pugh the unlimited belief in her role as suburban housewife Alice, the slow unveiling of her true place within the mindset laid down by the town of Victory’s founder Frank, played with cool understatement by Chris Pine, and her relationship with her husband, Jack, a sense of gravitas on screen portrayed well by Harry Styles.
The truth of the 1950s backdrop soon becomes apparent, the veil of honesty is drawn, and the realisation of what one man’s vision can lead to is discussed at length. For Alice it is a wake-up call, for the rest of us, Don’t Worry Darling is a stylish reminder of what terror awaits if we hand over our minds to another’s sense of Utopia.
Ian D. Hall