You know, my favourite thing about the movie is, like, the acting in this movie. The acting in this movie makes it feel like a real, like, you know, go-to-the-theatre-film movie. Okay with that reference out of the way, in all honesty, the acting in this movie is definitely the best part of this movie. All of the actors in this movie played their roles to perfection of either being the hardworking husband or the stay-at-home wife. It's because of this that actors like Florence Pugh and Olivia Wilde, who plays Bunny, can stand out amongst the rest. Both of these actresses had the tough job of pretty much playing two characters in this movie: the one who doesn't know the truth and the one who does. It makes for great entertainment especially when you pair them with others in this movie who know nothing. Florence Pugh really stole the show for me in this movie though due to her dual performance. It was amazing to see her easily switch between playing this stereotypical 1950s housewife to questioning her reality and what's really going on. She plays Alice in such a vulnerable way that you can't help but root for her to win in the end. Compared to Olivia Wilde who plays Bunny in such a way you have no clue whether she knows what's going on and chooses to ignore what's happening or is just like everybody else. It's because of this that the audience feels like Alice in this situation not knowing if they can fully trust her or not. I know a lot of people are going to talk about those two but I especially want to talk about Chris Pine, who plays Frank. Despite Frank not being the most menacing villain in movie history Chris Pine still does his best to make him as menacing as possible.
Whenever Frank is on screen you can't help but wonder how everybody trusts this guy because he seems like the least trustworthy guy ever and that's all thanks to Chris Pine's acting. Chris Pine plays Frank in a way that you can kind of find comfort in him but still feel wary of him. I do wish we got to see more of Gemma Chan, who plays Shelley, because she easily had the potential to be just as menacing of a villain as Chris Pine. Now for the moment, everybody has been waiting for my opinion on Harry Styles's acting and well it definitely wasn't Golden. At times his performance in this movie was tolerable and wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be but that was only for a small chunk of this movie. For the majority of this movie you can tell he was trying his hardest to match up with his co-stars but just ends up falling on his face. There were scenes in this movie where you can easily tell he's not an actor as he has this confused look on his face. At one point during this movie, I decided to try and imagine Shia LaBeouf as the character Jack and came to the conclusion that neither actor really work as the male lead. The most disappointing element for me in this movie is the story. I went into this movie thinking it was going to be a gender-swapped Truman Show with some social commentary in it and I was pretty much correct. The story for this movie easily is one that piques my interest and should've been a win in my book so what made it not work for me? Honestly, it's hard to fully explain why this story didn't work for me without diving into spoiler territory. But just because it didn't work for me doesn't mean it won't work for everyone else. I honestly think that most people will find enjoyment with this story even if it's not the most original story and have fun analyzing it as well. There are also certain story points in this movie that might seem insignificant at first but come into play later on in the movie. But this movie's story isn't without its plot holes and certain things that just don't add up one of these things ends up being the plot twist for this movie.
Now, I will give the movie this the plot twist despite it not fully making sense it was surprising and you couldn't see it coming. But I think one of the biggest reasons the story doesn't fully work is due to the pacing of it. The pacing for this movie is kind of wacky in that each act of this movie has a different pacing to it. The first act has a much slower pacing which is required to help set things up and make sure everything appears as normal as can be. Once the inciting incident happens is when the pacing starts to go all over the place. At times it will be going at the right speed, then it'll be slow and finally speed up. This goes on till the crazy final act which goes at an insanely fast pace. Due to this wacky pacing, the movie somehow feels both short and long all at the same time. What definitely doesn't help is including some scenes that easily could've been shortened or not included at all, I'm looking at you diner table scene. I would love to say the editing doesn't help with the pacing but while I was watching the movie I realized why it was jumpy. The editing in this movie is used so the audience gets insight into how Alice is feeling and experiencing what she's experiencing. It's honestly really creative and helps the audience feel like a character in this movie when they notice this as well. Or it's just me overanalyzing something very simple like I'm known to do. Another element in this movie that worked really well in this movie is the cinematography. The cinematography all around for this movie was gorgeous and helps tell this story perfectly. From the framing of certain scenes to the lighting of this movie everything just works perfectly. The last thing I'll talk about is the score, composed by John Powell, for this movie and how it adds to the scenes. When you listen to the score before the inciting incident the music sounds normal and like music you would hear in the 1950s but after the inciting incident, it starts to sound off. It's still nice to listen to but the music has something off about it nonetheless that makes it less appealing.
In the end, Don't Worry Darling isn't the best but also isn't the worst movie of this year and is worth checking out at least once on a cheap day at the theatre. I would personally recommend just staying home and watching The Truman Show as it's the same kind of story just done better.
Whenever Frank is on screen you can't help but wonder how everybody trusts this guy because he seems like the least trustworthy guy ever and that's all thanks to Chris Pine's acting. Chris Pine plays Frank in a way that you can kind of find comfort in him but still feel wary of him. I do wish we got to see more of Gemma Chan, who plays Shelley, because she easily had the potential to be just as menacing of a villain as Chris Pine. Now for the moment, everybody has been waiting for my opinion on Harry Styles's acting and well it definitely wasn't Golden. At times his performance in this movie was tolerable and wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be but that was only for a small chunk of this movie. For the majority of this movie you can tell he was trying his hardest to match up with his co-stars but just ends up falling on his face. There were scenes in this movie where you can easily tell he's not an actor as he has this confused look on his face. At one point during this movie, I decided to try and imagine Shia LaBeouf as the character Jack and came to the conclusion that neither actor really work as the male lead. The most disappointing element for me in this movie is the story. I went into this movie thinking it was going to be a gender-swapped Truman Show with some social commentary in it and I was pretty much correct. The story for this movie easily is one that piques my interest and should've been a win in my book so what made it not work for me? Honestly, it's hard to fully explain why this story didn't work for me without diving into spoiler territory. But just because it didn't work for me doesn't mean it won't work for everyone else. I honestly think that most people will find enjoyment with this story even if it's not the most original story and have fun analyzing it as well. There are also certain story points in this movie that might seem insignificant at first but come into play later on in the movie. But this movie's story isn't without its plot holes and certain things that just don't add up one of these things ends up being the plot twist for this movie.
Now, I will give the movie this the plot twist despite it not fully making sense it was surprising and you couldn't see it coming. But I think one of the biggest reasons the story doesn't fully work is due to the pacing of it. The pacing for this movie is kind of wacky in that each act of this movie has a different pacing to it. The first act has a much slower pacing which is required to help set things up and make sure everything appears as normal as can be. Once the inciting incident happens is when the pacing starts to go all over the place. At times it will be going at the right speed, then it'll be slow and finally speed up. This goes on till the crazy final act which goes at an insanely fast pace. Due to this wacky pacing, the movie somehow feels both short and long all at the same time. What definitely doesn't help is including some scenes that easily could've been shortened or not included at all, I'm looking at you diner table scene. I would love to say the editing doesn't help with the pacing but while I was watching the movie I realized why it was jumpy. The editing in this movie is used so the audience gets insight into how Alice is feeling and experiencing what she's experiencing. It's honestly really creative and helps the audience feel like a character in this movie when they notice this as well. Or it's just me overanalyzing something very simple like I'm known to do. Another element in this movie that worked really well in this movie is the cinematography. The cinematography all around for this movie was gorgeous and helps tell this story perfectly. From the framing of certain scenes to the lighting of this movie everything just works perfectly. The last thing I'll talk about is the score, composed by John Powell, for this movie and how it adds to the scenes. When you listen to the score before the inciting incident the music sounds normal and like music you would hear in the 1950s but after the inciting incident, it starts to sound off. It's still nice to listen to but the music has something off about it nonetheless that makes it less appealing.
In the end, Don't Worry Darling isn't the best but also isn't the worst movie of this year and is worth checking out at least once on a cheap day at the theatre. I would personally recommend just staying home and watching The Truman Show as it's the same kind of story just done better.