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Don't Worry Darling

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Watch Don't Worry Darling with a subscription on Hulu, Max, rent on Fandango at Home, Prime Video, Apple TV, or buy on Fandango at Home, Prime Video, Apple TV.

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Despite an intriguing array of talent on either side of the camera, Don't Worry Darling is a mostly muddled rehash of overly familiar themes.

The ending isn't for everyone, but the cast -- especially Florence Pugh -- helps Don't Worry Darling make the most of a story with fairly few surprises.

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Olivia Wilde

Florence Pugh

Harry Styles

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‘don’t worry darling’ review: florence pugh and harry styles can’t redeem olivia wilde’s stale reality-warp nightmare.

Chris Pine also stars in this mind-bending psycho-thriller (screening out of competition in Venice) set in an idyllic experimental community where Eisenhower-era values hide something sinister underneath.

By David Rooney

David Rooney

Chief Film Critic

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Harry Styles and Florence Pugh in 'Don't Worry Darling'

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Everything We Know

Everything we know about don't worry darling, we dig into all the details of olivia wilde's mysterious sophomore directorial effort starring florence pugh, harry styles, and chris pine..

TAGGED AS: Film , movies , psychological thriller , thriller

What is the Victory Project? If the characters in Olivia Wilde’ s upcoming psychological thriller were to ask about the truth behind this seemingly picture-perfect bit of 1950s American suburbia, the response they would likely get is the title of the film: “ Don’t Worry Darling .”

Luckily, we aren’t about to dismiss your questions about Wilde’s new movie ahead of its theatrical premiere this fall, so here’s everything we know about Don’t Worry Darling .

It’s Olivia Wilde’s Second Feature Film as Director

(Photo by Francois Duhamel/©Annapurna Pictures)

Olivia Wilde got her start as an actress, appearing on TV in the medical drama House and in films like Tron: Legacy , Cowboys & Aliens , and Drinking Buddies , but she’s demonstrated a real talent as a director, too. Her directorial debut, 2019’s female-focused high school buddy comedy Booksmart , was widely acclaimed. Don’t Worry Darling does not appear to be the heartfelt, feel-good romp that Booksmart was, though, and it will be interesting to see how Wilde handles this new genre. She has genre experience in her filmography, and she’s proved that she has the potential to be a great director.

When Wilde announced Don’t Worry Darling as her next project in August 2019, 18 different studios engaged in a bidding war, with New Line Cinema ultimately winning. Warner Bros. is distributing the film.

The Plot Feels Like The Truman Show Meets The Matrix Meets The Manhattan Project

Olivia Wilde, Nick Kroll, and Chris Pine in Don't Worry Darling

(Photo by Warner Bros. Pictures)

Unlike so many movies these days, Don’t Worry Darling is not a remake, nor is it based on any pre-existing book, comic, or other known property. The script that would eventually become Don’t Worry Darling was written by brothers Carey and Shane Van Dyke , and it earned a spot on 2019’s Black List — an annual round-up of acclaimed and buzzed-about screenplays that haven’t been produced yet. Katie Silberman , who wrote the screenplay for Booksmart , did a rewrite of the script and wrote the final screenplay.

Here is the official synopsis for Don’t Worry Darling :

“Alice and Jack are lucky to be living in Victory, the experimental company town housing the men who work for the top-secret Victory Project and their families. Life is perfect, with every resident’s needs met by the company. All they ask in return is unquestioning commitment to the Victory cause. But when cracks in their idyllic life begin to appear, exposing flashes of something much more sinister lurking beneath the attractive façade, Alice can’t help questioning what they’re doing in Victory, and why. Just how much is Alice willing to lose to expose what’s really going on in paradise?”

Olivia Wilde presenting Don't Worry Darling at CinemCon 2022

(Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)

Speaking at CinemaCon in April 2022, Wilde gave some indication of what sort of vibe people could expect from the film. According to Variety, the story was inspired by movies like Inception , The Matrix , and The Truman Show .

“Imagine a life where you have everything you could want. Not just material, tangible things… like a beautiful house, perfect weather and gorgeous cars. But also the things that really matter, like true love or the perfect partner or real trusted friendships and a purpose that feels meaningful,” Wilde said at CinemaCon. “What would it take for you to give up that life, that perfect life. What are you really willing to sacrifice to do what’s right?” Wilde asked. “Are you willing to dismantle the system that’s designed to serve you?”

The first and, so far, only trailer for the movie premiered in early May. It’s an effective, eerie trailer that offers a good sense of what the vibe of the movie will be without spoiling too much in terms of plot. The swingin’ party at the beginning and the chic ‘50s aesthetics all look quite nice, but they soon give way to ominous threats, a sense of unease, and building action as it becomes clear that this is not just a normal period piece. Something is very, very wrong in Victory.

The Cast Features Big Names and Rising Stars

Florence Pugh ( Black Widow ) stars as Alice, the wife who seems to be asking too many questions about the Victory Project. Opposite her is Harry Styles , who is best known for the band One Direction but who has since made successful forays into acting, appearing in Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk and the post-credits sequence of Marvel’s Eternals . Styles plays Jack, Alice’s husband and an employee who works on the Victory Project.

In addition to directing, Wilde appears in the movie herself, playing Bunny, another one of the wives who live in Victory. Gemma Chan ( Eternals ), KiKi Layne ( The Old Guard ), and Kate Berlant , a comedian who has had small roles in movies like Sorry to Bother You and Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood , also appear to be playing wives. Sydney Chandler, actress and daughter of Kyle Chandler, stars as well.

Chris Pine ( Wonder Woman ) plays Frank, who seems to be a higher-up at the company behind the Victory Project, and he menaces Alice at one point in the trailer. Nick Kroll ( Big Mouth ), Douglas Smith ( Big Love ), Ari’el Stachel ( The Band’s Visit ), Asif Ali, and Timothy Simons ( Veep ) also star.

Filming Wrapped in February 2021, But Was Delayed Due to COVID

Olivia Wilde and Chris Pine on the set of Don't Worry Darling

Filming for Don’t Worry Darling began in October 2020 and concluded in February of 2021. It was halted for two weeks in November when somebody on the set tested positive for COVID-19. In an Instagram post celebrating the end of filming, Pugh went to great lengths to praise everybody who worked on the movie for getting it made despite the ongoing pandemic.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CLSE6F9F_vv/?utm_source=ig_embed&ig_rid=50556787-4d96-46d0-a5cb-20e64db4d3de

This Movie Is Why Olivia Wilde and Harry Styles Are Dating

(Photo by Neil Mockford/Getty Images)

Don’t Worry Darling is a notable movie for fans of celebrity gossip, because Olivia Wilde and leading man Harry Styles started dating after they met while making the movie. According to Us Weekly , the pair hit it off almost immediately and made the relationship public in January of last year. Wilde had previously been engaged to Ted Lasso star Jason Sudeikis , with whom she has two children, but they broke off their engagement in November 2020. Styles is reportedly not the cause of the split.

During Wilde’s presentation at CinemaCon, somebody got on the stage and handed her an envelope. It was later revealed that she had, in fact, been served child custody papers. Sudeikis said he was unaware the papers would be delivered like that.

Don’t Worry Darling opens in theaters everywhere on September 23, 2022.

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‘Alice, Darling’ Review: A Nervous Anna Kendrick Plays a Woman Trapped in an Abusive Relationship

In an impressive serious turn, the typically radiant 'Pitch Perfect' star shrinks before our eyes, embodying someone so brainwashed by a controlling boyfriend that her besties are forced to intervene.

By Dennis Harvey

Dennis Harvey

Film Critic

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A few minutes into “Alice, Darling,” audiences may be reminded of how 2020’s “The Invisible Man” opened: Anna Kendrick creeps out of bed at dawn, taking pains not to wake the partner we briefly assume she’s about to flee. But whereas that Elisabeth Moss vehicle was a monster movie given heft by its abusive-boyfriend backstory, director Mary Nighy’s feature debut puts a woman’s difficult exit from a dangerous relationship front and center. This is a quietly powerful drama about psychological manipulation and damage, receiving a year-end qualifying run at the AMC Sunset 5 in West Hollywood on Dec. 30 before expanding to AMC theaters nationwide on Jan. 20.

Popular on Variety

Alanna Francis’ nuanced script threads in a subplot about a missing young woman in this rural area, suggesting elements of murder mystery we anticipate might lead into more genre-oriented territory. That actually proves a red herring; “Alice, Darling” may frustrate those expecting its denouement to be reached by more violent or melodramatic means than those the filmmakers devise.

But the focus here is not so much on the object of Alice’s terror as it is the emotional bedrock of friendships Simon has (naturally) done his best to distance her from, and which may yet prove her salvation. While the word “intervention” is never spoken, that is this movie’s de facto gist: how people who really love you will take the risk of telling you who is only pretending as much, to your evident harm. Breaking a destructive codependency is so hard, sometimes others must strike the first severing blow for you.

It’s a strong role for Kendrick, whose character may seem less than fully defined, but then that’s part of the point — Alice’s boyfriend has insidiously worn away any part of her personality that doesn’t prioritize him. Kaniehtiio Horn and Wunmi Mosaku are both very good as that rare screen thing, BFF figures with palpable inner lives of their own, rather than just being satellites to the protagonist. Carrick is careful not to make Simon a conspicuous monster. To the extent that we see him, he’s charming and attractive enough of the time that we understand how Alice got sucked by degrees into a relationship operating much like a slow-acting poison.

If the film could have used a stronger sense of catharsis at the end, it is nonetheless all to the good that Nighy and Francis exercise such judicious prior restraint. That keeps “Alice, Darling” from any sense of contrivance, the silent worry in Kendrick’s every gesture maintaining sufficient tension despite the lack of overt thriller devices. The thoughtful assembly is complemented in particular by Owen Pallett’s piano-based original score and Mike McLaughlin’s handsome but unshowy cinematography.

Reviewed online, Dec. 29, 2022. In Toronto Film Festival (Gala Presentations). MPA Rating: R. Running time: 90 MIN.

Production: (Canada) A Lionsgate release and presentation of a Babe Nations Films, Elevation Pictures production in association with Ontario Creates, Castelletto Films. Producers: Katie Bird Nolan, Lindsay Tapscott, Christina Piovesan, Noah Segal. Executive producers: Sam Tipper-Hale, Anna Kendrick, Laurie May, Adrian Love.
Crew: Director: Mary Nighy. Screenplay: Alanna Francis. Camera: Mike McLaughlin. Editor: Gareth C. Scales. Music: Owen Pallett.
With: Anna Kendrick, Kaniehtiio Horn, Charlie Carrick, Wunmi Mosaku.

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Breaking Down the End of <i>Don’t Worry Darling</i>

Breaking Down the End of Don’t Worry Darling

Warning: This post contains spoilers for Don’t Worry Darling

Early in Don’t Worry Darling , which drops on HBO Max Nov. 7, our hero Alice (Florence Pugh) begins to suspect that something is amiss. Alice and her handsome husband Jack (Harry Styles) are the picture-perfect protagonists of Olivia Wilde’s controversial and highly-anticipated follow-up to Booksmart , her directorial debut . They live in a 1950s-era Palm Springs-esque desert suburb dotted with tidy midcentury modern homes. They’re young and deeply in love, one of a number of couples who live an enviable life filled with poolside cocktail parties.

A cultish figure named Frank (Chris Pine) holds sway over the company town, which he has named Victory. Frank’s underlings are forbidden from sharing any information about their jobs with their spouses or families. Every day the husbands seemingly drive off to a bunker in the desert where they work on a super-secret project while their partners stay home to clean, cook, shop, and gossip.

The audience may find it odd that all these perfectly coiffed wives emerge from their houses onto their shared cul-de-sac at the exact same time every morning to send their husbands off to work. But Alice doesn’t catch on to the greater mystery of the movie until she cracks a carton’s worth of eggs and finds them missing their yolks.

Read More: Don’t Worry Darling Is Imperfect, But Not Nearly as Bad as Its Detractors-in-Advance Might Hope

She wanders into the desert, sees the bunker where the men work, and investigates. Over the course of the film, Alice argues with a series of men who dismiss her concerns as fits of womanly hysteria.

You might be here because you’re curious about the drama surrounding the movie , which has at times overshadowed the film itself. Maybe you’ve noticed that the marketing surrounding the movie hints at a big twist. Or maybe you saw saw the film and want to dig in deeper into what it all means.

Here’s everything you need to know about the ending of Don’t Worry Darling .

What happens in the movie?

Alice suspects something weird is going on with her husband Jack and their Stepford Wives existence. The wives are forbidden from going into the desert that surrounds the town. They occasionally whisper about what it is their husbands are actually doing all day and theorize about the strange sonic booms that disturb their leisurely afternoons. The fact that the town is dubbed “Victory” suggests that the men are working on a Manhattan Project -adjacent nuclear weapon or something similar.

Things go sideways when one of Alice’s friends, Margaret (KiKi Layne), wanders into the desert after her child and claims she saw something terrible there. The company tells the town that the son died in the desert, further reinforcing the idea that wandering off is dangerous. But Margaret says the company took away her son as punishment for uncovering whatever mystery she found. Margaret then slices her throat open in front of Alice, seemingly killing herself, though a doctor tells Alice that Margaret recovered. We never see Margaret again.

What’s the twist?

It’s all a simulation!

The electroshock therapy doesn’t go as planned. While lying on the table, Alice accesses memories of her real life.

It turns out that she is, in reality, a doctor, not a housewife. She lives in a dreary city apartment and works terrible hours. Jack is her partner in that universe too. He doesn’t particularly like how much Alice works or that she’s the breadwinner in their relationship. The movie attempts to up Jack’s creep-factor in these scenes by giving Harry Styles very un-Harry Styles-like hair and clothes.

While listening to a creepy podcast with men’s rights activist vibes, Jack hears about special VR technology invented by Frank that allows a man and the woman of his choosing to be plugged into a ’50s-style universe. The woman, it should be noted, doesn’t consent to the virtual reality experience. Nor is she even necessarily the man’s partner—she can be just some random woman that the man presumably…kidnaps? Yikes. Jack signs up himself and Alice, without Alice’s consent.

When Alice returns “home”—well, to her 1950s simulation home—she flinches as she kisses Jack, and more real-world recollections flood in. She confronts Jack, and he explains that he made this choice because she was miserable in the outside world working long hours in a hospital. Now she just gets to relax by the pool. He wishes that he never had to leave the simulation himself, but he does so he can go to a job in the outside world every day and fund his creepy daydream.

Alice screams that she chose her so-called miserable life, and that she enjoyed it. That’s the tricky thing about the patriarchy: It often disguises itself as domestic bliss.

Alice then accidentally kills Jack. Alice’s neighbor Bunny shows up and reveals that she knows they’re living in a simulation. Bunny is there voluntarily because she lost her children in real life and she gets to see her fake children in virtual reality. (A strange revelation considering that all the messiness and joy of children seems to be sapped from Bunny’s offspring. They are mere automatons.)

Bunny also mentions that if you kill a man in virtual reality he dies on the outside. (Why? Don’t think about it too much). Alice doesn’t seem all that sad about murdering her controlling loser of a husband. Bunny, a font of crucial information, tells Alice to run to the bunker in the desert. It’s the only means of escaping the simulation. Again, why? Perhaps because Wilde wanted to film a cool chase scene with old-school cars. Alice just barely makes it. The end.

Read More: The 52 Most Anticipated Movies of Fall 2022

Okay, so what was with that plane?

Alice watching a plane crash kicks off the entire adventure. Was it a glitch in the VR experience? It’s hard to imagine that Frank would purposefully program that into the simulation.

What about that moment when Alice almost gets crushed to death while cleaning?

Alice has several trippy experiences, like the wall of her house nearly crushing her to death and the dance class hallucination. Is that a glitch or Frank messing with her head as some sort of punishment? It’s never made clear.

Can women die in the simulation?

Apparently not. Bunny specifically says that if men die in virtual reality they die in real life. Why would women be the exception? Unclear.

Margaret slashes her throat early in the film and disappears. She either died by suicide in real life or found that killing herself was the only way to escape the simulation.

How does Alice eat or go to the bathroom while using the simulator?

Even if Alice’s safety isn’t threatened inside the simulation, how is she surviving outside of it?

We see Alice hooked up to the simulator machine in a bed. Didn’t any of her coworkers or family ask about her going missing? Once she’s attached to the machine in the bed, how does she eat? And how does she go to the bathroom? Does Jack have to take care of that? That would seem to zap a lot of the “romance” (and the quotation marks are doing a lot of work there) from Jack’s fantasy with Alice in dream land.

Why did Frank’s wife stab Frank?

The status of Frank’s wife Shelley (Gemma Chan) throughout the movie is a mystery. Does she know that she’s living in a simulation like Bunny? Or did Frank trick her? Presumably the latter: He figured out how to capture his wife in his 1950s suburbia and then podcasted about it to other insecure men across the world.

At the end of the movie, when Alice is making her escape, Frank is talking on the phone with his in-virtual-reality security about how to stop Alice. Shelley casually walks over and slips a knife into Frank. Why does she do this now? Did she just figure out what Frank was up to? How did she solve the mystery, since Frank remains opaque on his phone call? Did other clues like Margaret slitting her own throat or Alice confronting Frank at a dinner party not tip her off previously?

Shelley also makes a comment about how it’s now “her turn.” Her turn to run the simulation? Is she going to help women entrap men there? Change the simulation? Escape? We will never know because we never see her again.

Why did Harry Styles dance at that company party?

There is a scene in the middle of the movie when Frank promotes Jack, and then Jack does a really long, elaborate dance onstage at a party while Alice has a breakdown in the bathroom. I have absolutely no explanation for why this scene exists in the movie. Maybe there’s a Dance Dance Revolution mini-game within this virtual reality universe.

Jack’s dance does inspire the men of Victory to start chanting about how they’re creating the future in a manner that’s reminiscent of Nazi rallies.

What are the influences on Don’t Worry Darling ?

The most obvious touchstone for Don’t Worry Darling is The Stepford Wives . For the uninitiated, Stepford Wives is a horror novel-turned-movie (released in 1975, followed by a 2004 adaptation with Nicole Kidman) that satirizes men’s reactions to women’s liberation. It centers on a photographer named Joanna who moves with her husband to an eerily perfect town. All the housewives are vapid, strangely devoted to housework, and subservient to their husbands.

Joanna investigates her suspicions that something is amiss in the town while her husband spends an increasing amount of time at the men’s club. Joanna finds out that the women in the town used to have thriving careers but became docile housewives with notably larger breasts and no remaining interest in their previous jobs. She eventually discovers the men are transforming the women into, essentially, sex robots. She is betrayed by her own husband and turned into one herself.

There’s a moment in the Stepford Wives book in which Joanna briefly returns to the city. She observes the working women on the streets and describes them “rushed, sloppy, irritated—and alive.” That line beautifully illustrates the contrast between Alice’s real life as a doctor (alive) and her imagined one as a housewife (in a trance).

Wilde has also cited Betty Friedan’s earth-shattering book, The Feminine Mystique , which chronicled the dissatisfaction of the American housewife and helped launch second-wave feminism in the U.S., as an influence.

The visuals borrow heavily from 1960s films like the Sean Connery James Bond movies, but also (more recently) from Mad Men . The stifling midcentury marriage between Alice and Jack recalls that of Revolutionary Road . Alice’s realization that she is being gaslit and her eventual escape echoes the finale of Get Out . Alice’s name may be a nod to the Alice who falls down the rabbit hole into a topsy-turvy world in Alice in Wonderland . The simulation plot recollects films like The Truman Show and Pleasantville .

What does Don’t Worry Darling have to do with The Matrix ?

The Matrix is a touchstone, not only because the entire plot of that movie centers on the hero deciding to unplug from a beautiful-looking but unreal simulation in favor of a grittier life in reality, but also because of The Matrix’ s inadvertent influence on the language of men’s rights activists.

In The Matrix , the hero Neo (Keanu Reeves) must choose between a blue pill to continue his delusion or a red pill to wake up to reality. In certain corners of the Internet, dissatisfied men use the term “red pill” to refer to the moment they “realized” that women allegedly run the world. Red Pill forums on the Internet have become a place where mostly white, mostly straight men air misogynistic views on women and bemoan their diminishing status in society. (The creators of The Matrix , Lana and Lilly Wachowski, both trans women, have since explained that The Matrix is actually an allegory for coming out as trans, to the consternation of many men’s rights activists.)

Wilde has specifically cited these dark corners of the Internet as inspiration for the villains of the film. One can easily imagine Jack identifying himself as someone who was “red pilled” when he felt emasculated by his wife’s earning potential. He sought refuge among a community of men yearning for a time when men controlled women’s bodies and behavior. Ironically, in Wilde’s movie, these red-pilled men purposefully delude themselves in order to gain back power instead of living in reality.

What do incels, men’s rights activists, and Jordan Peterson have to do with the plot?

A lot! The main antagonists of Don’t Worry Darling are insecure men who want to control women, their careers, and their bodies. Jack doesn’t feel like he’s taking care of Alice—so he takes her as his prisoner. After hearing Frank lecture about men losing power in society and needing to prove their manliness on a podcast, Jack skulks through the rain in the middle of the night to find Frank in real life and sign up for this Victory Project.

We don’t know the motivations for the other men sticking their partners or other random women inside the simulation, but we can guess that they’re all controlling and creepy, and their sexual relationships reek of a lack of consent. These types of men will be familiar to any woman who spends time on the Internet. And there are certain figures who cultivate followings of disaffected men who, after millennia of enjoying advantages in the world, blame the advancement of women for any current ills.

Wilde told fellow director Maggie Gyllenhaal in Interview Magazine that she based Chris Pine’s character specifically on one such incendiary thinker: Jordan Peterson. Peterson has gained devotees among such men who blame advancements in gender relations for their misery. He has made a career of inflammatory statements about trans rights, gender pronouns, and gender equity.

“We based that character on this insane man, Jordan Peterson, who is this pseudo-intellectual hero to the incel community,” Wilde said. Gyllenhaal said she didn’t know the term “incel.” (Bless Gyllenhaal for not spending all her time on Twitter.) Wilde explained that it refers to “involuntarily celibate,” “basically disenfranchised, mostly white men, who believe they are entitled to sex from women.”

Wilde added: “They believe that society has now robbed them — that the idea of feminism is working against nature, and that we must be put back into the correct place.”

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Something’s not working … Florence Pugh in Don’t Worry Darling.

Don’t Worry Darling review – panic! Harry Styles drama offers cause for concern

Styles’s accent is intentionally dodgy, but the rest of Olivia Wilde’s unconvincing tale of dystopian suburbia does not have the same excuse

F irst things first: it was unfair of everyone on Twitter to mock Harry Styles – on the basis of a single out-of-context online clip – for his wonky and unconvincing transatlantic accent in this film. There turns out to be a reason for it. Unfortunately, that reason is part of a larger wonkiness and unconvincingness in this handsomely designed but hammily acted, laborious and derivative mystery chiller. Directed by Olivia Wilde, it superciliously pinches ideas from other films without quite understanding how and why they worked in the first place. It spoils its own ending simply by unveiling it, and in so doing shows that serious script work needed to be done on filling in the plot-holes and problems in a fantastically silly twist-reveal.

The setting is 1950s suburbia, or some disturbingly fabricated alt-reality version of 1950s suburbia, a glitchless picture-perfect place for a satire on conformity and patriarchy. This is a gleaming new housing development in the Californian desert, with state-of-the-art homes for families and upscale professional couples; there are retail stores and a swish country club for tennis and swimming. And everyone works for a single company with the faintly Orwellian name “Victory”, which is also the name of the town. The firm does top-secret work which employees are forbidden to discuss, and the locality is periodically disturbed by crockery-rattling mini-quakes which everyone has learned to ignore. The wives have swallowed their anxiety and thus have a glazed, affectless expression, like the Valium addicts of postwar America or those mannequins in the fake nuclear-test “doom towns” built by the US government in the Nevada desert.

Victory’s golden couple are Jack (Styles) and his stay-at-home wife Alice (Florence Pugh) who are apparently blissfully happy, loved up and living the American Dream. Jack is on the verge of serious promotion and they love hanging out with other Victory employees, such as the waspishly witty Bunny, played by Wilde herself. But the company chief Frank (Chris Pine) and his glacial wife Shelley (Gemma Chan) have the creepy assurance of cult leaders. There is a weird, anguished outburst from a depressed company wife at one of their claustrophobic parties, and Alice begins to suspect that something is very wrong.

Like Katharine Ross and Peter Masterson in Bryan Forbes’s The Stepford Wives from 1975, or Jeanne Tripplehorn and Tom Cruise in Sydney Pollack’s 1993 thriller The Firm, Jack and Alice are a couple who are at first thrilled by how great their lives are and do not suspect there is anything going on. They are seduced by the narcotic stupor of prosperity: the drinks, the food, the gleaming automobiles and the incessant jukebox slams of catchy music. But some occult evil can be glimpsed.

So far, so interesting … but where are we going with all this? The film feels it has to avoid the obvious reason for Victory’s existence and go down the rabbit hole after something else: so when the switch is finally flipped to give us the big secret, it feels absurdly negligible and contrived, and the details are not thought through. Styles may or not be a talented actor; it’s not easy to tell from this, but the normally excellent Pugh has not been interestingly directed, certainly not compared with her work in broadly comparable movies such as Midsommar or The Falling .

It is a movie marooned in a desert of unoriginality – and the desert doesn’t bloom.

Don’t Worry Darling screened at the Venice film festival , and will be released on 23 September in the US and UK.

All our reviews from Venice 2022

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Florence Pugh
Olivia Wilde
Harry Styles

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Don't worry darling, common sense media reviewers.

Stylish Harry Styles thriller has erotic scenes, drinking.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

The main message takes the form of a question: Wha

Alice is a critical thinker whose curious mind is

Female-forward storytelling with women behind the

Knives used to cut or stab. Deep peril. Suicidal a

Extensive visual modeling of one character pleasur

"F--k" is said a couple of times.

Frequent drinking in a fun, party atmosphere. Ciga

Positive Messages

The main message takes the form of a question: What would you sacrifice to live "the perfect life"? And would you sacrifice "the perfect life" if you thought it was corrupt?

Positive Role Models

Alice is a critical thinker whose curious mind is unable to sweep things under the carpet. She's brave enough to speak truth to power, even if the personal cost is high. Jack is a loving husband, and he and Alice are a team, something that wasn't always the norm in the 1950s and '60s.

Diverse Representations

Female-forward storytelling with women behind the camera as well as in front. Sex-positive perspective. Most of the primary characters are White, but there are actors of color in the supporting cast, and the character who sets the plot into motion is Black; however, she's initially portrayed as being emotionally disturbed.

Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update.

Violence & Scariness

Knives used to cut or stab. Deep peril. Suicidal act shown in close up, with some blood. Blow to the head. A character has disturbing mental health "episodes."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Extensive visual modeling of one character pleasuring another sexually. No sensitive body parts are shown, but a man's head and hand are shown between a woman's legs in the two respective scenes, and she exhibits a strong orgasmic reaction. Burlesque dancing. Brief glimpse of the side of a breast. White cotton nightgown is somewhat see-through.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Frequent drinking in a fun, party atmosphere. Cigarette smoking.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that because heartthrob Harry Styles stars in Don't Worry Darling, a thriller directed by and costarring Olivia Wilde , his tween and teen fans may be interested. But the film's very Stepford Wives -esque premise -- in a seemingly idyllic suburban 1950s town, the husbands all work at a mysterious company, while their wives work at being "perfect" wives -- isn't meant for kids. The couples in the town socialize daily, guzzling drinks and smoking cigarettes while looking fabulous (this is the Vogue version of the mid-20th century). While they don't include any graphic nudity, sex scenes between a married couple are intensely erotic, with a husband pleasuring his wife from start to (enthusiastic) finish. A suicidal act is shown in close-up, and one character experiences disturbing mental health "episodes." Other violence includes stabbings and someone being struck with a blunt object. The middle finger and "f--k" is said a couple of times. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

Videos and photos.

Community Reviews

Parents say (19)
Kids say (27)

Based on 19 parent reviews

Really Excellent movie…NOT for teens or kids.

What's the story.

In DON'T WORRY DARLING, Alice ( Florence Pugh ) and Jack ( Harry Styles ) are a young married couple who are madly in love and living an idyllic life in a picturesque company town built in the desert. Like everyone who works at the Victory Project, Jack's work is top secret. But when Alice's friend Margaret ( KiKi Layne ) becomes disturbed by something she saw (or believes), Alice wonders whether life in Victory is truly as wonderful as it seems.

Is It Any Good?

Wistfully wonderful, Wilde's psychological thriller is mid-century marvelous -- so much so that it may work against its own purpose. Told from a female point of view, the film doesn't have a message so much as a driving question: What is the perfect life, and what would you sacrifice for it? When asked that, teens might have an instant reaction that's wrapped up in identity, independence, and a modern perspective. But Wilde's movie wraps up the patriarchal past inside a seductive package of pretty pencil dresses, poolside parties, and sisterly shopping sprees. Alice is enthusiastic about her life with Jack, and the wives of Victory embrace supporting their husbands through clean houses, delicious dinners, sexy morning goodbyes, and martinis after work. The allure of that lifestyle is necessary for the rest of the movie's plot to unwind, and while the idea of it isn't intact by the end, there may be more than a few younger viewers who are sold on the notion that being a housewife looks pretty great.

That aside, Don't Worry Darling is enthralling. Alice is a phenomenal character, and, as played by the talented Pugh, she has all the complexity of the female spirit. It doesn't seem coincidental that she shares her name with a famous literary character who's "curiouser and curiouser." When she sees a loose thread in the perfection of Victory, Alice just can't let it go. She knows she shouldn't pull on it, and she tries not to, knowing it may very well unravel everything she holds dear -- yet she must. Once she starts tugging, viewers fly into the spiral of confusion with her, and when her answers come, it's in the form of a shocker that will hold up in cinematic history. For parents focused on raising active, critical teen thinkers, this Alice is worth following into the rabbit hole.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about whether Don't Worry Darling is a feminist film. Why, or why not?

How did you feel about the "crazy" friend being Black, and the controlling wife being Asian? Does the movie's ending justify these problematic depictions of underrepresented communities? Why is positive representation important?

What do you think life was really like for women in the United States the 1950s and early '60s? How does that answer change depending on race and socioeconomic factors? How would you feel if you were expected to fall in line with the gender roles of the mid-20th century?

Why are secret societies a popular plot device in entertainment? What's the modern-day equivalent of a secret society, as pointed out by the film?

Movie Details

In theaters : September 23, 2022
On DVD or streaming : November 7, 2022
Cast : Harry Styles , Florence Pugh , Chris Pine , Olivia Wilde
Director : Olivia Wilde
Inclusion Information : Female directors, Female actors, Female writers
Studio : Warner Bros.
Genre : Thriller
Character Strengths : Curiosity
Run time : 122 minutes
MPAA rating : R
MPAA explanation : sexuality, violent content and language
Last updated : September 4, 2023

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

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'Don't Worry Darling' review: At least Florence Pugh sparkles in buzzy-but-flat retro thriller

“Don’t Worry Darling” has certainly been central to a litany of drama before its release. Oral sex scenes in the movie trailer. The director getting hit with legal papers onstage at CinemaCon . Said director reportedly dating one of her stars and maybe feuding with the other . A purportedly fired actor hitting back at the filmmaker.

All that scandalous hubbub is more scintillating than what actually happens on screen in the twisty and visually striking but fairly flat psychological thriller.

Director Olivia Wilde pulled off a fantastic debut with the excellent coming-of-age film “Booksmart,” but "Don't Worry Darling," her second outing with writer Katie Silberman, doesn’t have the same spark. Starring Florence Pugh and pop star Harry Styles , Wilde's follow-up film (★★½ out of four; rated R; in theaters Friday) imagines an idyllic (at least for the 1950s-loving crowd) community where there’s something sinister going on underneath the happy-shirt exterior. And while there’s a definite “The Stepford Wives” sort of vibe, the narrative themes (which do lean timely) lack subtlety and nuance.

'Really vicious': Olivia Wilde breaks silence on custody documents from Jason Sudeikis

Thankfully, Pugh keeps it watchable as a young married woman trying to keep her sanity amidst a ton of gaslighting and constant doo-wop songs.

Alice (Pugh) and Jack (pop star Harry Styles) live a regular, mostly vanilla life. Like all the other dudes in their cul-de-sac, Jack zooms off after morning breakfast to his secretive engineering job for the Victory Project – the mysterious company that’s given them a home in the desert filled with white picket fences and golden oldies. The housewives, including Alice’s next-door neighbor, Bunny (Wilde), gossip when the men leave, and Alice begins her usual day of cleaning the entire house, until Jack gets home and they’re all over each other.

But the overly attentive Alice begins to wonder whether the Victory existence is all it’s cracked up to be – and not just because she breaks eggs that weirdly have nothing inside them. She begins to have strange blackouts, nightmares and visions, like of showgirls doing a Bob Fosse routine from hell. In addition, her friend Margaret (KiKi Layne) has become persona non grata after venturing where she shouldn’t have gone and seeing something she shouldn’t have seen.

'Don't Worry Darling': Olivia Wilde says Harry Styles is 'a revelation' in sexy thriller

Jack tries to maintain the household status quo, especially when his beloved boss, Frank (Chris Pine in full-on suave mode), taps him for a new promotion. Alice keeps asking questions in a place that demands unwavering loyalty, though, which soon puts her under Frank’s watchful eye.

Wilde has meticulously crafted a retro landscape that’s both familiar and nostalgic, but also unnerving in its too-clean facade, while at the same time successfully creating an inner, “Get Out”-inspired horror show for Alice, where the walls quite literally close in on her. There’s also a great chase with vintage cars that lends a “Mad Max”-meets-“North by Northwest” flair to the mind-bending narrative. But those anticipating an erotic thriller need to temper sexpectations: There are only a couple of love scenes, and neither are what you would call torrid. (When Alice launches a roast off the dinner table for a little sh-boom sh-boom and some rama lama ding-dong with Jack, it leans more humorous than hot.)

Shia LaBeouf: Actor denies Olivia Wilde firing him from 'Don't Worry Darling' for 'combative' process

Pugh, like she’s done with “Black Widow,” “Midsommar” and others, continues to make everything she’s in better – and, boy howdy, it’s needed here as the plot grows more convoluted. She takes Alice from ever-doting to paranoid conspiracy theorist and back again, making both happiness and terror feel impressively authentic in a waxwork world.

Styles has already taken (warranted) grief for an accent that’s all over the place , and his Jack is also a bit of a nonfactor for much of the runtime, though he gets more to do after the Big Reveal. (If you're paying attention, it’s not that hard to figure out what exactly is happening.) The lack of chemistry between Pugh and Styles is another disconnect – her dynamic with Pine, albeit antagonistic, is far more effective and not explored nearly enough.

At a particularly tense dinner party, Frank belittles Alice by saying she’s the “challenge” he’s been looking for, but ultimately she’s disappointed him. Unfortunately, the same can be said of “Darling,” an ambitious meal with some key ingredients that just feels undercooked.

Movies to watch Labor Day weekend: Stream 'Honk for Jesus,' revisit 'Spider-Man' and more

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Alice, Darling review: Anna Kendrick draws on her own experiences in a poignant abuse drama

Director mary nighy delicately exposes how internalised and invisible the experience of narcissistic abuse can be, article bookmarked.

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Alice ( Anna Kendrick ) doesn’t see herself as a victim of abuse. In fact, she insists she isn’t. Why then when Alice and her friends (played by Kaniehtiio Horn and Wunmi Mosaku) come across a poster for a missing girl presumed to have been killed by someone close to her, can she not shake off the spectral feeling of connection to this total stranger’s tragedy? After all, she says to her friends and herself, it’s not like her boyfriend (Charlie Carrick) “hurts me or anything”.

What Alice can’t yet see – and what forms the core revelation of the understated but poignant Alice, Darling – is that abuse is not always a single action. It lives and breathes within her relationship with Simon. It is the ever-present, sickly dread that resides in the pit of Alice’s stomach, which dictates that she must cater to Simon’s every whim and sexual advance out of fear of what he may do otherwise.

With Alice, Darling , director Mary Nighy (daughter of actor Bill) delicately exposes how internalised and invisible the experience of narcissistic abuse can be. It’s one that, for Alice, at least, exists almost entirely within the confines of her phone. She stares at it, dead-eyed but fixated. When will the next text from Simon arrive? What will it mean? And what might it secretly demand? Behind locked bathroom doors, Alice compulsively tears her hair out and bundles it into tiny, wiry balls of shame.

Nighy does, occasionally, revert to the standard symbols of sad women. One day, I hope cinema will move on from the image of female protagonists submerged in bathtubs, drowning in their own oppression. Alice, Darling remains striking, however, thanks to how subtly Alanna Francis’s screenplay presents the warning signs of Simon’s behaviour. We see him return from the crowded, lauded opening of his art show only to declare it “a complete f***ing trainwreck”. The unspoken expectation being that Alice will tend his ego and reassure him of his genius.

Kendrick has been candid when speaking about the film. The actor recently revealed that she drew much of her performance from a recent experience of her own . Her affinity with the material is especially evident in how authentically she renders Alice’s dissociative spells. There’s that glazed-over look in her eye and the bodily tension of someone trying to crawl inside of themselves.

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It’s particularly refreshing to see how uninterested Kendrick and Nighy are in making Alice saintly. She’s prickly and argumentative when confronted about her relationship. When a friend softly points out her patterns of disordered eating, Alice shovels handfuls of chocolate into her mouth like a stubborn child. The film wouldn’t work, either, without Horn and Mosaku, who find that same space for imperfection in their performances as loving friends who don’t know quite how to help. That is the ultimate, noble-hearted dream behind Alice, Darling – that there’s a friend out there, maybe even an Alice, who will see this film as the wake-up call they need.

Dir: Mary Nighy. Starring: Anna Kendrick, Kaniehtiio Horn, Charlie Carrick, Wunmi Mosaku, Mark Winnick. 15, 89 minutes

‘Alice, Darling’ is in cinemas from 20 January

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Don't Worry Darling: release date, reviews, trailer, cast and everything we know about the Olivia Wilde movie

Florence Pugh and Harry Styles lead this psychological thriller.

Florence Pugh and Harry Styles in Don't Worry Darling

Olivia Wilde made a splash with the first movie she directed, Booksmart , which makes her second outing, Don’t Worry Darling , one that many have been eagerly awaiting among the slate of 2022 new movies . The actress/director isn’t resting on her laurels either, as Don’t Worry Darling looks to be a bold and big swing.

An original idea written by Katie Silberman ( Booksmart ), Carey Van Dyke & Shane Van Dyke ( The Silence ) and featuring a fantastic ensemble highlighted by Florence Pugh and Harry Styles, there’s a lot to be excited about with Don’t Worry Darling .

Here’s everything you need to know about the movie.

When is the Don’t Worry Darling release date?

Don’t Worry Darling has a release date of September 23 for the US, UK and other global markets. It plays exclusively in movie theaters to start.

What is the Don’t Worry Darling plot?

Billed as a thriller, Don’t Worry Darling centers on husband and wife, Alice and Jack, who live in an experimental 1950s utopian society, or so it seems. Alice begins to fear that there is more to their surroundings than meets the eye. Here is the official synopsis from Warner Bros.:

"Alice and Jack are lucky to be living in the idealized community of Victory, the experimental company town housing the men who work for the top-secret Victory Project and their families. The 1950’s societal optimism espoused by their CEO, Frank (Pine) — equal parts corporate visionary and motivational life coach — anchors every aspect of daily life in the tight-knit desert utopia.

"While the husbands spend every day inside the Victory Project Headquarters, working on the 'development of progressive materials,' their wives—including Frank’s elegant partner, Shelley — get to spend their time enjoying the beauty, luxury and debauchery of their community. Life is perfect, with every resident’s needs met by the company. All they ask in return is discretion and unquestioning commitment to the Victory cause.

"But when cracks in their idyllic life begin to appear, exposing flashes of something much more sinister lurking beneath the attractive façade, Alice can’t help questioning exactly what they’re doing in Victory and why. Just how much is Alice willing to lose to expose what’s really going on in this paradise?"

What is Don't Worry Darling rated?

Don't Worry Darling is rated R for US audiences for "sexuality, violent content and language." The movie is rated 15 in the UK.

How long is Don't Worry Darling?

Don't Worry Darling has a runtime of two hours and two minutes.

Who is in the Don’t Worry Darling cast?

Playing the main couple of Alice and Jack are Florence Pugh and Harry Styles.

Pugh is an Oscar-nominated actress ( Little Women ) who has truly broken out over the last couple of years. In addition to Little Women she has starred in Black Widow and appeared in the Disney Plus original series Hawkeye , as well as Midsommar , Fighting with My Family and the TV mini series The Little Drummer Girl .

Most will know Harry Styles as the singing superstar (formerly of pop group One Direction, now solo), but he has been scratching his actor itch over the last couple of years. He made his acting debut in Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk and, like Pugh, has joined the MCU, appearing in an Eternals post-credits scene as Eros. He has another 2022 movie coming outside of Don’t Worry Darling called My Policeman .

While Pugh and Styles headline Don’t Worry Darling , the rest of the cast is incredibly impressive as well. Chris Pine ( All the Old Knives , Star Trek ) is set to play Victory Project CEO, Frank. There’s also Gemma Chan ( Eternals ) as Shelley, Nick Kroll ( Big Mouth ) as Bill, Timothy Simmons ( Veep ) as Dean, Kiki Layne ( The Old Guard ) as Margaret, Douglas Smith ( Clarice ) as John and Olivia Wilde, pulling double duty in front of and behind the camera, as Mary.

Don't Worry Darling reviews — what the critics are saying

The reaction to Don't Worry Darling hasn't been great. As of September 22, the movie has a 31% "Rotten" score on Rotten Tomatoes , which classifies it as "Rotten;" it scores a little better on Metacritic , 48, which puts it in the "average/mixed" range.

WTW's Don't Worry Darling review praises the lead performance by Florence Pugh, but admits the mystery at the center of the story isn't too tough to crack for the audience, which can make it a frustrating watch.

Don’t Worry Darling trailer

Don’t Worry Darling shared its first look trailer as part of the 2022 CinemaCon convention at the end of April for movie theater owners, but it is now available for all to watch. It addition to Styles and Pugh getting hot and steamy , the big mystery at the center of Don’t Worry Darling looks very intriguing. Watch the full trailer directly below.

Below is another trailer for Don't Worry Darling , which plays up even more of the psychological elements that the movie is going to dive in to.

Olivia Wilde, Don’t Worry Darling director

As mentioned above, Don’t Worry Darling is Olivia Wilde’s second directing job following 2019’s Booksmart . Wilde was highly praised for her work on Booksmart , which earned a 96% on Rotten Tomatoes and an Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature.

Wilde isn’t slowing down as a director either. She has signed on to direct the movie Perfect , which tells the story of famous US Olympics Kerri Strugg, and is in line to direct an Untitled Sony/Marvel movie, expected to be a female-centric story.

Olivia Wilde and her rise as a director was the focus of a cover story from Variety .

Of course, before she broke out as a director, Wilde was a well known actress, whose credits include House , Tron: Legacy , Cowboys & Aliens , Drinking Buddies and Richard Jewell . She’s also set to appear in another 2022 movie, Damien Chazelle’s Babylon .

Harry Styles' original song for Don't Worry Darling

Harry Styles not only lent his acting talents to Don't Worry Darling , but the world famous musician also contributed an original song to the movie.

Reported by Variety , Styles composed what is being described by director Olivia Wilde as "the trigger song," something that Florence Pugh's character hums and is a kind of theme for the movie. Styles describes the song as both "sweet and creepy, entirely dependent on the context."

It's not clear at this time if there are lyrics to the tune or if we can expect any kind of music video for it. If not, we'll probably have to wait until either a soundtrack is released or the movie has begun playing.

Don't Worry Darling off-screen drama

Unfortunately, the off-screen drama around Don't Worry Darling has seemed to grasp more of the attention than the actual movie. While we won't go into too much detail, some of it has been centered around star Florence Pugh and Olivia Wilde at odds, reportedly over the director beginning a relationship with co-star Harry Styles during filming.

Wilde recently addressed a few of the other buzzy topics on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, including whether Harry Styles spit on Chris Pine and the debate regarding Shia LaBeouf's exit from the movie:

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Michael Balderston is a DC-based entertainment and assistant managing editor for What to Watch, who has previously written about the TV and movies with TV Technology, Awards Circuit and regional publications. Spending most of his time watching new movies at the theater or classics on TCM, some of Michael's favorite movies include Casablanca , Moulin Rouge! , Silence of the Lambs , Children of Men , One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest and Star Wars . On the TV side he enjoys Only Murders in the Building, Yellowstone, The Boys, Game of Thrones and is always up for a Seinfeld rerun. Follow on Letterboxd .

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Alice, Darling

A young woman trapped in an abusive relationship becomes the unwitting participant in an intervention staged by her two closest friends. A young woman trapped in an abusive relationship becomes the unwitting participant in an intervention staged by her two closest friends. A young woman trapped in an abusive relationship becomes the unwitting participant in an intervention staged by her two closest friends.

Alanna Francis
Mark Van de Ven
Anna Kendrick
Kaniehtiio Horn
Charlie Carrick
125 User reviews
240 Critic reviews
65 Metascore
1 win & 4 nominations

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Did you know

Trivia The book Alice finds and Tess reads to her by the bonfire is "Mrs. Dalloway" by Virginia Woolf.
Goofs There's a sex scene towards the end of the movie between Anna Kendrick's character and her partner. When they're on the floor he clearly has bare legs. Next second right after he stands up he has black trousers on.

Alice : I know this sounds crazy, but sometimes it feels like he can read my mind and there's nowhere left that I can actually be alone.

Connections Featured in On Cinema: Alice, Darling (2022)
Soundtracks Klapp Klapp Artist: Hari Dafusia (as Dafusia) written by Periyagaram Sridhar Srihari Courtesy of Sorelle Sound Ltd.

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Feb 3, 2023
How long is Alice, Darling? Powered by Alexa
January 20, 2023 (United States)
United Kingdom
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Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Babe Nation Films
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$4,000,000 (estimated)

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Runtime 1 hour 29 minutes
Dolby Digital

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‘Alice, Darling’ Review: That’s What Friends Are For

Anna Kendrick stars in a drama about a woman in an abusive relationship who finds refuge with two girlfriends during a getaway.

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Three women stand in the woods, with the middle one holding a maul.

By Manohla Dargis

When the title character in “Alice, Darling” makes her entrance, she looks the picture of the thoroughly modern, liberated, happy woman. From the outside, Alice (Anna Kendrick) seems to have it all or almost, including a career, dear friends, a nice Toronto pad and an attentive boyfriend. Look closer, though, and you can see the fissures surrounding her smile. The longer you look, the more numerous and deeper the cracks appear, making the impeccable image that Alice presents to the world seem concerningly, precariously fragile.

I’m not a Kendrick completist, but I’m always happy to see her. A pleasant, personable, ever-so-slightly off presence, she is one of those performers who looks like someone you know or would like to. She’s a fine actress with natural charm, and part of her appeal is that she excels at playing characters who seem recognizably real. Kendrick looks like a pal, like someone you went to high school with, although maybe didn’t get stoned with because she comes across as so straight — that is, if you ignore that she can also seem awfully tightly wound, like someone who needs to keep it together, like someone who’s performatively normal.

The sense that there’s more going on under Kendrick’s likable persona works well for both her character and for this movie, a liberation story that tracks Alice as she struggles to break free of her emotionally abusive lover and her paralyzing fears. Like everything else in Alice’s life, her boyfriend, Simon (Charlie Carrick), looks good from the outside. He’s a successful enough artist who’s worried about his upcoming gallery show. He’s nice looking, too, though his behavior — how he looms over Alice, how he scowls, the contempt that creeps into his voice, the insults that he rains down on her — makes him very ugly. And still, she loves him.

The story revs up when Alice takes a trip with two friends from childhood, Sophie (a necessary and strong Wunmi Mosaku) and Tess (an amusingly spiky Kaniehtiio Horn). Together, they set off to the countryside where Sophie’s parents have a waterside house. The plan is to hang out and celebrate Tess’s birthday, and the trip gives Alice an excuse to get away from Simon, who haunts both her sleep and her waking hours. Mostly, though, it allows the movie to get down to its unsurprising business: Cue the warm looks and fond memories, the booze and pinpricks of unease, some face-offs and a reckoning.

Written by Alanna Francis and directed by Mary Nighy, “Alice, Darling” has a jittery, intriguing premise that evokes classic gaslighting films. Alice’s rotten relationship and her inability to accept the truth about Simon stirs up tension and makes you feel something serious is at stake: You’re worriedly on her side from the start. Once the story moves to the country, though, it downshifts as it becomes a female friendship tale and the movie stalls. One issue is that the characters simply aren’t persuasive as a unit, and despite the performers’ efforts, their interactions never find the flow that comes with longtime intimacy, even when things have gone south. These women just don’t make any sense together.

The larger problem is that there’s not enough here — in story terms or in the filmmaking — to sustain even the movie’s 90 minutes. Sophie and Tess exchange puzzled looks amid the perfunctory staging and camerawork as Alice retreats and lashes out, including at herself. She briefly gets caught up in a search for a missing local woman, a grim subplot that’s presumably meant to serve as a cautionary tale but mostly comes across as padding. The filmmakers also fold in many flashbacks of Simon berating Alice, which make his emotional abuse incontrovertible but do little to bring her into focus. Kendrick looks suitably unhappy, and while you feel for her character, you mostly wish that this actress were in a better movie.

Alice, Darling Rated R for partner emotional abuse, self-harm and violence. Running time: 1 hour 30 minutes. In theaters.

Manohla Dargis has been the co-chief film critic of The Times since 2004. She started writing about movies professionally in 1987 while earning her M.A. in cinema studies at New York University, and her work has been anthologized in several books. More about Manohla Dargis

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‘Alice, Darling’ Review: Anna Kendrick Gives Her Best Performance in Weak Abusive Relationship Drama

Ryan lattanzio, deputy editor, film.

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Editor’s note: This review was originally published at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival. Lionsgate releases the film in limited theaters on Friday, December 29 with expansion to follow on Friday, January 20.

While not quite the taut thriller it’s been billed as, “Alice, Darling” centerpieces Anna Kendrick in her best performance since “Up in the Air” made her a star (and Oscar nominee) in 2009. Kendrick is in every scene of Mary Nighy’s drama about a woman (Alice) whose reality comes crashing down over the course of a girls’ trip to a lakeside cabin: The reality is that she’s in an abusive relationship with a Newcastle artist named Simon (Charlie Carrick), who has a chokehold on her every move and decision, from her whereabouts to what she’s wearing.

“Alice, Darling” runs out of emotional impact despite a lean 89-minute running time that already feels too long, though Kendrick capably carries her character’s emotional arc from self-deception and denial to revelation and escape.

The movie opens with a close-up on Alice’s face, appearing pensive while floating underwater. It’s the sort of vaguely metaphoric shot we know will serve as a bookend, and it eventually does as the movie wraps up. Cut to Alice in the city, meeting her friends Tess (Kaniehtiio Horn of “Letterkenny”) and Sophie (Wunmi Mosaku, “Lovecraft Country”) for dinner. Tess has a birthday looming and so proposes the idea of a cottage trip; it’s immediately obvious that Alice is thrown off by the idea, though we’re unsure why.

Meanwhile, the very dashing waiter keeps making eyes at Alice, and for a minute you think this might be the meet-cute that eventually winds Alice up into a not-so-cute toxic relationship. Not so. Alice mentions Simon, her longtime boyfriend, and his upcoming art show. Tess, an aspiring but far less successful artist herself, is less supportive about Simon. Is it because her friends aren’t in happy about the psychological damage he’s inflicting on Alice? By the end of the film, we discover how very little they knew.

That’s because Alice, as anyone locked in a Stockholm Syndrome-like relationship marked by gaslighting, verbal abuse, and control, is adept at compartmentalizing the person she is with Simon and the one she is out in the world and with her friends. In the restaurant bathroom, she sends a snap of her cleavage to Simon at his behest, signaling just the kind of sway he has over her even in moments where she’s with other people.

Back at home, she finds the waiter’s number on the receipt in her pocket, and not only rips it up, but also washes out the ink before throwing it in the trash, implying that Simon is the kind of guy who probably goes through the garbage looking for evidence like this.

While Alice clearly isn’t in any kind of therapy, and isn’t even honest with herself about what’s going on, she’s found one coping mechanism: trichotillomania. In moments of crisis or anxious unease, she pulls out strands of her hair by the roots, taking no pleasure in the self-destructive act, but using it as you would drugs or alcohol to cope with stress. These are hard-to-watch moments, but Kendrick, ever a game comic actress and rarely given a dramatic leading showcase, effectively conveys her character’s inescapable mental torment. Later, in the shower, Simon sneaks up on her for sex she’s all too willing to comply with despite her unsettled mood.

Everything comes crashing down during the girls’ trip, which Alice has lied to Simon about under the pretense of needing to go on a last-minute business trip. His texts are relentless, and his surveillance makes it difficult for Alice to relax with Tess and Sophie. Meanwhile, in the background, a local girl has gone missing — a red-herring device that might provide some shades to Alice’s character but that ultimately goes nowhere. Alice, rather than catch up with her friends, heads into search parties with the locals.

The movie, from here, precedes to meander until the inevitable, as Simon shows up at the cabin after Alice repeatedly ignores his increasingly menacing missives. Her friendships are already fraying over the course of the short trip, despite some nice sing-song moments to Lisa Loeb and nostalgic reminiscences of better times. When Tess does get to the bone of what’s happening to Alice, it’s gutting: “He wouldn’t love me if he knew how bad I am.”

Kendrick has said that she drew from her own experiences in a toxic relationship to channel Alice, and that shows: It’s a performance of understatement and quiet melancholy, and she rarely goes into full freakout moment outside of the bathrooms she shuts herself in to scream and pull her hair out. “Alice, Darling” makes the case for Kendrick as a dramatic actress, especially when she’s carving out her own material on personal terms (she’s also an executive producer here).

The script from Alanna Francis, however, could use that level of focus. Alice’s journey is a compelling one as she finds her way back to herself, but the movie feels overlong in its second act. While Francis and director Mary Nighy (who’s helmed on HBO’s excellent and underseen “Industry”) surely didn’t want to make a film totally about Alice and Simon’s dynamic (as he gets relatively little screen time), “Alice, Darling” could have benefited from more tension.

Visually the movie lacks in visual imagination, with cinematographer Mike McLaughlin and Nighy mainly directing via coverage shots when not in close-up on Alice, and they don’t contribute to what feels like a true cinematic experience on the big screen. (“Alice, Darling” has the feeling of a decent streaming movie.) Still, Kendrick makes the case for why she belongs in more dramatic roles that allow her to shed her normally peppy usually cheery onscreen persona. We know how good she is, and we’d only love to see more.

“Alice, Darling” premiered at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival. It will be released theatrically by Lionsgate at a later date.

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There is something bothering Alice. She’s underwater, watching the murky light and floating seaweed above her. She is not swimming back up for air—at least not yet. The scene is a precursor to something that will happen later in the movie “Alice, Darling,” but it’s also a visual metaphor for the character’s state of mind. In reality, she’s back on land, meeting her friends at a restaurant in the city. Although she’s in good company now, her mind is elsewhere. Below the surface of her smile, Alice ( Anna Kendrick ) is holding on to an abusive partner, Simon ( Charlie Carrick ), a truth revealed in a handful of uncomfortable conversations, guilt trips, and anxious behavior like pulling out her hair and panic attacks. Her relationship’s red flags are as clear as flashing billboard signs for her worried friends, but Alice looks past these warnings as if they’re her partner’s love language. Under the guise of a birthday getaway, her friends Sophie ( Wunmi Mosaku ) and Tess ( Kaniehtiio Horn ) stage an intervention for their friend sinking away from them: swim up and get out. Save yourself.

Mary Nighy ’s feature debut “Alice, Darling” is a straightforward drama about getting caught in the undertow of a bad romance. The telltale signs seem obvious to outsiders like her friends and viewers, but for Alice, she’s still performing the mental gymnastics of justifying his controlling demands to her body, attention, and time and interpreting them as love and affection. She’s dug into a defensive position and unable to see the damage Simon’s behavior has caused her, how she fears asking for time for herself, how suffocatingly he clings to her skin.

Nighy balances these perspectives as generously as she can. Almost every exchange or nervous glance from friend to friend or lover to lover feels like a hostage negotiation. What should be tender moments between the young couple are often cruel rounds of verbal and emotional abuse. The tension of the situation is baked within every confrontational staging between the pair or how detached Alice looks and feels from her friends. Even when Simon isn’t physically there in the scene, the fallout of his presence is visually evident. It’s isolated Alice from those who truly care about her.

The murkiness in Alice’s relationship carries over to the film’s aesthetics thanks to cinematographer Mike McLaughlin . Alice’s world looks a little less bright than the one her friends live in, as if she only ever ventures out on overcast days. There’s a warm tone to the girlfriend’s cabin trip to the woods, but something still looks off, like the peace and serenity of the location are somehow missing. In a move that overcomplicates the already tense drama at hand, Alanna Francis ’ script adds an element of danger to their trip through a subplot about a missing young woman. Alice becomes fixated on her, perhaps fatalistically so, and the mystery becomes an excuse for Simon to escalate his control over her. Maybe it’s to be a cautionary tale for Alice or something to entice her to escape, but none of this quite pans out as effectively as her narrative journey with her friends.

As the movie’s namesake, Kendrick embodies the tortured feeling of holding onto someone harmful. Alice tells her friends, “He wouldn’t love me if he knew how bad I am,” justifying her mistreatment repeatedly to them and herself. Kendrick’s performance is a stunning departure from her usual bubbly screen presence. That persona fades behind the distracted stare of a person who has to calculate every pro and con of what they say before they say it. She is overwhelmed by the pressure and unable to swim up for air, an SOS which Kendrick communicates through a range of reactions, from catatonic vacant stares to succumbing to heaving waves of a panic attack on the bathroom floor. She’s committed to this story and her character.

Kendrick’s performance is one of the strongest aspects of “Alice, Darling.” Under Nighy’s direction, they create an emotional portrait of someone on the verge of being lost to a warped distortion of love but who realizes they were surrounded by the real thing the entire time. For every cutting remark Simon makes at her expense, her friends are trying to rescue the person they knew before. That tension makes for good drama, but it takes the team’s sensitivity to make it feel as authentic as it does. It’s a relief when the credits roll, not unlike taking your first breath of fresh air after holding it underwater.

In theaters now.

Monica Castillo

Monica Castillo is a critic, journalist, programmer, and curator based in New York City. She is the Senior Film Programmer at the Jacob Burns Film Center and a contributor to RogerEbert.com .

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Alice, Darling (2023)

Rated R for language and some sexual content.

Anna Kendrick as Alice

Kaniehtiio Horn as Tess

Charlie Carrick as Simon

Wunmi Mosaku as Sophie

Markjan Winnick as Marcus

Daniel Stolfi as Officer

Alanna Francis

Cinematographer

Mike McLaughlin
Gareth C. Scales
Owen Pallett

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Toronto Review: ‘Alice, Darling’ Directed By Mary Nighy And Starring Anna Kendrick

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The trio go on a weeklong vacation trip, and at first Alice is apprehensive, and eventually agrees to go after lying to Simon about it. He’s been encouraging her to get rid of her friends. That thought is sinking deep into her psyche to the point she’s subconsciously destroying her relationships. To get Alice to live in the moment, Tess takes away her phone. Not having to answer her boyfriend’s constant text messages opens a floodgate of feelings, and she uses this vacation to begin recovering from trauma.

The manipulation, deception and gaslighting in Alice, Darling are off the charts. Simon is obsessive to the point where he wouldn’t let his girlfriend be gone for a week without interrupting her hangout plans and making everyone uncomfortable. Nighy’s direction succinctly captures those type of stilted moments. The director gets up close and personal to show the viewer how he abuses her in real-time and it is jarring: he rotates between insulting her and love-bombing her in under 60 seconds. That type of thing messes with your head.

Kendrick, Horn and Mosaku are an electric trio. They bounce off of one another effortlessly, sharing a three-dimensional bond that reverberates throughout the film. It leaps off the screen.

Alice, Darling is all about character and examining interior thought and how that manifests outward when negative and harmful thoughts are kept inside. These ideas turn on you, making you think what’s happening is your fault. The point of Francis’ script wasn’t to create a film about victims and abusers — it’s about addressing your fears and utilizing your support system to do so. Not all abuse shows physical bruises or scars. Some things just hurt mentally.

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‘Alice, Darling’: Anna Kendrick’s drama of a toxic relationship sticks with you

She gives a performance of integrity and authenticity as a woman leaning on friends to help her cut loose from her jerk of a partner..

Anna Kendrick plays the title character of “Alice, Darling,” who goes on a getaway with her best friends but doesn’t tell her controlling boyfriend.

The best thing that happens to Alice on a getaway week is when one of her closest friends takes her phone and keys so Alice can’t cut the trip short and go back to her boyfriend. It’s an intervention even though nobody is calling it that, and Alice needs that intervention because she is in a toxic relationship that is tearing her apart from the inside out — and it’s time for her to face that.

Anna Kendrick plays the title character in director Mary Nighy’s tightly constructed gut-punch of an emotional character study, and it is a performance of integrity and utter realness. With a dialogue-driven, authentic screenplay by Alanna Francis, an effectively poignant score by Owen Pallett and powerful work by Kendrick and Kaniehtiio Horn and Wunmi Mosaku as Alice’s best friends, this is the kind of intimate drama that sticks with you long after the viewing experience.

On the surface, Alice and her somewhat older boyfriend Simon (Charlie Carrick) seem to be in a loving, mutually supportive relationship — but there’s something insidious about the way Simon alternates gushing compliments with subtle and not-so-subtle digs at Alice, something alarming about the way Alice winds her hair around her fingers when she’s alone and seems borderline obsessed with calorie intake and body image.

One morning, when Simon goes into a coffee shop, Alice remains behind on the sidewalk, rehearsing the story she’s about to tell Simon: that she has to go away on a work trip, when in reality she’s going to a cabin in the country with her best friends Tess (Horn) and Sophie (Mosaku) to celebrate Tess’ 30th birthday. That Alice feels the need to lie about this trip speaks volumes about Simon’s control over her.

Despite the best efforts of Sophie and Tess, it’s nearly impossible for Alice to relax and enjoy the vacation. She becomes borderline obsessed with a local girl who has gone missing, spending an entire day joining the search party for someone she’s never met. When Alice loses an earring, she explodes in a fearful rage, because Simon gave her those earrings, and you don’t understand why this is such a big deal, nobody understands. Sophie and Tess try to get Alice to see she’s trapped in a horribly unhealthy relationship, but she keeps making excuses for Simon. He doesn’t hurt me , as in physical abuse, she tells them, as if that’s a ringing endorsement.

Director Nighy (daughter of actors Bill Nighy and Diana Quick) and editor Gareth C. Scales sprinkle in brief flashback scenes in which we see the poisonous emotional abuse Simon inflicts on Alice. (Carrick does fine work in an unforgiving role as a narcissistic man-child.) When Simon shows up unexpectedly at the cabin, all smiles and oily charm, “Alice, Darling” almost feels like a horror film — but Simon isn’t a killer, he’s an unrelenting jerk. We can only hope Alice, with the help of her two powerful, loyal, loving friends, can find the strength to send him packing.

Officer Luis Huesca wears a light blue police uniform as he poses for a portrait in front of an American flag.

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Can women die in the simulation?

How does Alice eat or go to the bathroom while using the simulator?

Why did Frank’s wife stab Frank?

Why did Harry Styles dance at that company party?

What are the influences on Don’t Worry Darling ?

What does Don’t Worry Darling have to do with The Matrix ?

What do incels, men’s rights activists, and Jordan Peterson have to do with the plot?

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You can now study for a first-class degree in … Harry Styles. And why not?

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