Constant Contradictions: Is “Don’t Worry Darling?” Worth Seeing?

Harry Styles, Florence Pugh and Olivia Wilde stirred the pop-culture pot when “Don’t Worry Darling” was released. From the start, fans argued about how the movie would turn out: 

“Harry Styles is so talented! He will be fantastic!” 

“Harry Styles isn’t an actor, and Olivia Wilde simply favors him!”

So, let’s get into the nitty gritty of both sides. Is “Don’t Worry Darling” a good movie, or even worth seeing?

After seeing the movie myself, I was conflicted over whether or not I would recommend it to others. The answer I eventually came up with is, “Yes.” The movie has a unique plot, which won’t be spoiled here, and several fantastic performances from all of the actors in the film.

Of course, the mesmerizing performance by Pugh had me hanging on to my seat. I felt that she reacted to many plot points exactly as I would, and it drew me into the movie. Her talent is of no question here. She was a huge part of the reason I saw the movie and I never had any doubts about her performance. 

Styles has one scene which made me truly excited to see how his acting career continues. He is emotive and realistic, which I wasn’t expecting. 

With the drama surrounding Styles, Pugh, and the director and actress, Wilde, fans certainly had a lot of expectations and more reasons than the plot to see the movie. Because of this, and the sound plot, acting, and intoxicating cinematography, I would deem this movie worth seeing. It isn’t so terrible that it made me shy away; the plot is intriguing enough that I was able to ignore some pacing issues; and the drama around the cast certainly makes it worthwhile for me to watch it, if only to be able to discuss the movie with others. 

The overall movie experience was satisfying and kept my attention to the end, even if my attention was, at times, on the second–hand embarrassment I felt or a few horrendous plot issues. 

Is the movie good? That is a whole other question.

Personally, the pacing and unnecessary length of the film is what had me puzzled during my viewing. The plot twist is hinted at from the beginning, within the first 10 minutes of the film, but never explained until the last 20. Because of this, I felt left out to dry and confused, wishing the movie would just reveal its main point. 

The pacing goes far too slow for my taste. It bounces around from random snippets of the plot twist to huge plot points that have no resolution, neither of which seems to be fully explained by the end. For instance, a major plot twist happens about 30 minutes before the end of the movie.        

The conflict of the movie, at this point, is clear to the audience, and although Alice, played by Pugh, goes through something that should have triggered the climax of the movie and the resolution of the conflict, the plot returns to Alice’s everyday life for a while until, quite randomly, Alice is somehow now aware of the conflict and begins to finally react to it.

While this may have worked, and has in other movies, it doesn’t here because there was no real reason to delay Alice’s realization that way except for time purposes. It makes far more sense to me for Alice to have simply realized the plot twist at the first climax rather than diluting it with another 10 minutes of small talk and Alice cooking.

At just above two hours long, the movie could have accomplished a much more shocking and impactful conflict, climax and resolution in far less time. 

So, is it a good movie? No, not for me. But would I recommend others watch it? Absolutely. As with many other pop culture moments, I am of the opinion that the good and the bad balance out to create a bad movie worth watching.

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