Don't Worry Darling is a 2022 American psychological thriller film directed by Olivia Wilde from a screenplay by Katie Silberman, based on a spec script by Carey Van Dyke, Shane Van Dyke, and Silberman. The film stars Florence Pugh, Harry Styles, Wilde, Gemma Chan, KiKi Layne, Nick Kroll, and Chris Pine. The film follows a housewife (Pugh) living in an idyllic company town who begins to suspect a sinister secret being kept from its residents by the man who runs it (Pine).
Alice and Jack Chambers are a married couple who live in Victory, California, an idealistic desert company town in the late 1950s/early 1960s. Every day, the men leave for work at Victory Headquarters in the surrounding desert, in which their wives are discouraged from entering or even asking about their husbands' work. The women enjoy luxuries and lounging while caring for their homes during the men’s absence.
Alice spends her days with other wives, including her best friend Bunny. One resident, Margaret, has become an outcast after experiencing a mental breakdown and taking her son into the desert, resulting in his apparent death, although she claims Victory took him from her as punishment for breaking the rules. At a party hosted by Victory's enigmatic founder, Frank, Alice witnesses Margaret's husband attempt to give her medication after an outburst. Alice and Jack then have sex in Frank's bedroom, but she notices Frank secretly watching.
Riding the trolley across town, Alice sees a plane crash in the desert and rushes to help. She stumbles onto Headquarters in the desert and touches one of its mirror-like windows, experiencing surreal hallucinations about another life before waking up at home that night. In the following days, she experiences increasingly strange occurrences and receives a phone call from Margaret, who claims to have seen the same things. After brushing off Margaret, Alice witnesses her slit her own throat and fall from her roof. Before she can reach Margaret's body, Alice is dragged away by men in red jumpsuits who work for Frank and experiences strange visions.
Jack dismisses Alice's claims and says Margaret is simply recovering from a household accident, corroborated by the town physician, Dr. Collins, who makes a house-call at their residence. He prescribes medication for Alice, which Jack declines, and she steals Margaret's heavily redacted medical file from his briefcase. Alice becomes increasingly paranoid, and during a company celebration where Frank gives Jack a promotion, she breaks down in the bathroom. Comforted by her friend Bunny, Alice attempts to explain her suspicions, but Bunny reacts angrily, accusing Alice of jeopardizing their livelihood in Victory.
Alice and Jack invite their neighbors to dinner, with Frank and his wife, Shelley, as special guests. In private, Frank confirms Alice's suspicions and taunts her by saying he hopes she continues to challenge him. Spurred by his confession, she attempts to expose him over dinner, but Frank makes her appear delusional to the other guests, causing Jack grief over her deteriorating mental state. In the aftermath, Alice begs Jack to leave Victory, to which he feigns agreement, but he instead has her taken away by Frank's men. Dr. Collins forces Alice to undergo electroshock therapy, during which she sees visions of herself in the 21st century, struggling to make ends meet as a surgeon named Alice Warren and living with the unemployed, lazy, and disgruntled Jack.
After her treatment, Alice is welcomed home and resumes her normal life, but comes to realize the visions are her real memories. Realizing he can no longer conceal the truth, Jack finally admits it: Victory is a simulated world created by Frank, where Jack and the other men lead their version of perfect lives; the women they have forced into the mid-20th century simulation are unaware that their lives, children and Victory itself do not exist. When the men leave for work each day, they are in reality logging out of the simulation for real jobs and to maintain their drugged wives, whose minds stay in the simulation. Jack argues that Alice was miserable in the real world while Victory means they can both finally be happy, but she is infuriated for him putting her in the simulation without her consent. Jack begs her to stay, forcefully holding on to Alice, prompting her to fatally smash a rocks glass over his head, causing his death in both the simulation and reality.
Frank is immediately alerted to Jack's death, while Bunny finds Alice and explains that she has always known Victory was a simulation, but chose to stay to be with her children, who died in real life. She tells Alice that her real body will be killed by Frank's minions, so she must get to Headquarters – the exit portal from the simulation. Alice silently confronts the neighborhood, leading the other wives to become aware, while the husbands panic. Fleeing in Jack's car, Alice is chased by Dr. Collins and Frank's men, maneuvering them into fatally crashing into each other. Meanwhile, Shelley fatally stabs Frank to take control of Victory. Arriving at Headquarters, Alice has a final simulation vision of Jack, then puts her hands on Headquarters just as Frank's men reach her. The screen cuts to black, and Alice gasps for air.
Rating: 10 Stars
