Don’t Worry Darling Movie Untangled and Discussed. I was initially excited about watching the movie Don’t Worry Darling for a lot of reasons. I mean, Olivia Wilde (director of Booksmart’s sophomore debut), Florence Pugh (The Wonder, Oppie, Lady Macbeth et al.), and a slew of great actors. But when the movie originally came out it was awash in negative press and I just couldn’t be bothered to sift through all the chaos… and didn’t think it worth the lift. But the other day, my wife, totally out of the blue, pointed at it on the screen and recommended we watch it. Huh, okay. Why not. And the reason I’m talking about it now? It’s because the movie isn’t really SPECTACULAR, but it does have a mindjob ending, and it also has some crazy opinions that it is spinning. And it might be worth the effort to get to the bottom of it just to see what this movie might in fact be saying.
Alright – if you haven’t seen this one yet – as always, don’t keep reading or you’ll ruin this one for yourself, and worse, you’ll make me angry. K? Great.
Overview Walkthrough of Don’t Worry Darling
In the quaint desert town of Victory, California, during the late 1950s/early 1960s, we meet Alice and Jack Chambers, a seemingly ordinary married couple living a seemingly idyllic life. However, Victory conceals a dark secret. Something doesn’t feel quite right from the jump. The men of the town depart each day to work at the mysterious Victory Headquarters, an off-limits enclave to their wives. In their husbands’ absence, the women enjoy leisurely days in their homes. Go shopping. Clean. Cooking. You know… the perfect idyllic 1950’s existence.
Alice’s daily life revolves around her best friend Bunny and other interactions with other wives in the town. One resident, Margaret, is an outcast due to her troubled past. Her behavior hints at something amiss, but nobody dares to delve into her secrets. A party hosted by the town’s enigmatic founder, Frank, becomes a turning point for Alice. The facade cracks when she starts to see through the veil, bit by bit. Something is just not right.
Soon after, Alice’s existence takes a surreal turn when she witnesses a plane crash in the desert and stumbles upon Victory Headquarters. Her encounter with the building’s mysterious mirror-like windows triggers hallucinations of an entirely different life. Something deeper is going on here. Why is she seeing these visions? As these bizarre occurrences escalate, Alice’s quest for answers plunges her into a web of intrigue and danger.
Alice’s efforts to uncover the truth face resistance from Jack, her husband, who gaslights her and dismisses her concerns. Her paranoia intensifies, leading to a shocking revelation from Frank during a dinner gathering with their neighbors. A desperate attempt to expose the truth backfires, leaving Alice isolated from those she thought she could trust. How? Easy, Jack is given a significant raise to the level of Partner. So, who does he agree with? The company? Or his wife? Huh. I wonder.
When Alice thinks that she has convinced Jack to run for their lives, and to flee Victory, she is captured by men in red suits and given electroshock therapy. And in this altered state she glimpses her genuine memories—a life in the 21st century as a surgical resident named Alice Warren, living with a vastly different version of Jack. The startling revelation emerges: Victory is some sort of alternate reality that has been manipulated by Frank. Better yet, its residents are trapped in an intricately crafted illusion.
With newfound clarity, Alice confronts Jack, who confesses to his complicity in her predicament. Victory, she learns, is a confinement of sorts that is meant to keep the women content while the men maintain their real lives back in the real world. Jack’s admission sparks Alice’s anger, setting the stage for a deadly confrontation.
Determined to break free from Victory’s grip, Alice faces a challenging journey. With Bunny’s revelation and support, she embarks on a daring escape, revealing the simulated nature of their existence to the other wives. Panic ensues among the husbands, leading to a crazy car chase through the desert.
As Alice races toward the exit portal, she grapples with her past, her choices, and her complicated feelings for Jack. The story culminates in a gripping climax as Alice confronts those who seek to keep her captive. We don’t see anything beyond her exit – but we can surmise a lot based on what we know.
Wait, Explain the Ending of Don’t Worry Darling Slowly
Let’s speak more clearly. Jack, unhappy with his lack of control over his wife, signs up for a virtual reality world where he and Alice can live “happily” oblivious to the reality of the world. Frank has made it possible to wipe his wife’s memories, and lock her to their bed. Through some sort of optical sensor, she can only see the reality of Victory. Alice, being told that she is required to be the dutiful wife in support of her husband, thinks that this is all there is to life. But when the veil cracks, she realizes that she could have so much more.
We also learn that Bunny is aware of the facade, and is happily choosing to stay within the lie. But Alice is a surgeon. She has a life of work and is satisfied by this really important work. And it is this “satisfaction” with something other than Jack that really pisses him off. She is his wife after all. No? She should dutifully serve and be there to make him happy. What is she thinking coming home too tired to make him dinner after a 48 hour shift? I mean COME ON!
Thoughts On The Film Don’t Worry Darling
Oh, I can see why this movie was controversial when it was initially released. First, it pissed off half the planet’s inhabitants… men, as it alleges that all men want to have dutiful women at home that will happily make them dinners and clean all day as opposed to chasing frivolous careers. And secondly, from a liberal or conservative standpoint, it pissed off another half of the country’s population. Why stop with just making the men angry, why not piss off the Republicans of the United States while we are at it?
So yeah.
But I don’t find myself lumped in with the men who might have hated this movie. It had a lot of valid things to say. Possibly the biggest conversation topic it should start is how men are threatened by smart and driven women. Why is that? Because they look stupid, that’s why. And looking stupid is a subordination of their God Given Right to run their families. (cough). So, obviously they are threatened. It also calls out the disparity in our assumptions about gender roles when it comes to providing for a family. Women who earn more than their husbands? SCARY! Woah. Oh no! (This is intimately connected to risk 1, but different.)
Personally? I dig super smart women. Hell, I dig super smart humans.
The movie sort of pissed in pretty much everyone’s breakfast cereal, and didn’t really do what it was endeavoring to do with much aplomb. So yeah, it belly flopped out of the gate. But I thought it was saying a lot in a very short period of time. We don’t believe women innately. We gaslight them when they think something is wrong that challenges the innate structure of society. We prefer women that know their place, and prefer our ladies to be tidy and there for their decorating sensibilities. (Or what have you.)
My Thoughts on Don’t Worry Darling
It was a bit of a bitter pill to swallow. But I liked the VR reveal and the hidden underpinnings of the movie. I did wonder how Alice was planning to get out of her bed restraints. Jack was going to still have the upper hand in the real world. I mean, he could try and send her in again after a new wipe, right? He can do whatever. So that bit of it definitely left me wondering how Alice’s fleeing the simulation was going to go well for her. But who knows? Regardless, it was an interesting morality tale about listening to the women of the world, whether they are spouses or not. About valuing them innately for their contributions to society. Or maybe I missed something?
Edited by: CY