Don't Worry Darling

Ein pastellfarbener Femme-Matrix. Es ist gut, dass das Plakat so aussieht, als ob es sich um eine süße Romanze mit Harry Styles handeln würde. Die überraschten Zuschauerinnen bekommen eine durchdachte Thriller-Metapher einer ewigen innerlichen Unzufriedenheit und eine utopische Illusion eines "perfekten Lebens". Im Hinblick darauf, dass es sich um das zweite Werk einer Regisseurin handelt, die ursprünglich eine Schauspielerin war, ist dieser Film sehr ehrgeizig. Er verlässt sich auf die namhaften Mitglieder des Filmstabs (den Kameramann, die Cutterin, den Komponisten). Florence Pugh hat die beste Schauspielleistung geliefert, Styles kümmert sich und die romantische Seite. Sie haben es richtig gut gemacht. Die Pointe ist aber nicht besonders originell und eigentlich auch nicht geeignet. Bei der Steigerung im Finale zerfällt das Ganze in den Zusammenhängen und in dem emotionalen Erlebnis. (29.09.2022)

As a mystery thriller one-shot from The Twilight Zone, totally fine. It's beautiful to look at, great craftsmanship, and I have a soft spot for Florence Pugh, she improves the rating of every film by at least one star. On the other hand, if their ambitions were higher, well we can’t speak of a success. The concept is fine and could have been the basis for a more substantial piece of filmmaking, but it would have needed from sharper edges and a more focused script (actually, it's a terribly perverse outcome, but Wilde and the writers failed to fully capitalize on its power). The handling of the reveal of the twist seems a bit shallow, and if you start digging into the individual scenes, you'll find that they may not even make much sense in the end – I really don’t understand what the plane wreck was doing there. 7/10 (03.10.2022)

Don’t Worry Darling has been written about mostly in the context of major and minor on-set scandals lately, which is a bit of a shame that Olivia Wilde's new film doesn't deserve. She changed the genre dramatically after the fairly clever comedy drama Booksmart, and her new film certainly manages to impress. Matthew Libatique knows how to evoke the atmosphere of the 1950s as they may never have been, but as people want to see it through the filter of nostalgia. John Powell, on the other hand, has done one of his best soundtracks ever, and visually and musically there is nothing to fault the film. It manages to be mesmerising and then again a few seconds later very disturbing. Florence Pugh is excellent in the lead role, as is Chris Pine; in fact everyone here tries their best in front and behind the camera. It's just that they are being tripped up by the story, which, while not bad at all, unfortunately, as the runtime progresses, it becomes clear that Wilde doesn't have a new The Truman Show, Dark City, Inception or The Matrix in her hands, but just solid and functional material from which she can squeeze a technically brilliant film, but one that lacks emotion, surprise or any worthwhile message, especially at the end. The result is good, though exceptional, but I will certainly be happy if Olivia Wilde continues her directorial career. (20.09.2022)

Olivia Wilde and her ambitious psychological thriller evoking The Stepford Wives should have been the gem of the year, but it's just a decent genre flick. The setting in the 1950s is very nice, the utopian experimental community is an attractive subject, Florence Pugh is both sexy and a great actress, and there's a nice final twist with Chris Pine that has something to it, but somehow I was expecting more. When best scene in thriller is Pugh's oral sex on a table doesn't feel enough to me. I found the whole film to be a little too restrained. There is no violence, no proper escalation of the situation. The trailer made me expect downright mind fuck scenes playing with the viewer's mind, shocking and fascinating at the same time and unfortunately Olivia fails to do that. I probably had too high expectations, but it's not a bad film, it's definitely worth seeing, I wasn't bored, there are bright moments and strong performances, and the visuals and atmosphere are also very good. In the cinema it might have enhanced the experience to a stronger rating,at home only for a strong 3 stars. 65%. (09.11.2022)

The stolen pile of civilian genre short stories so committed to tricking you that it refuses to answer its own questions. In the first one, there are so many dead ends and vanities that go nowhere that I didn't want to believe until the last second that Olivia Wilde actually wanted to build her entire universe on a single twist. My rating leans mostly on the divine talent of Florence Pugh, who with nothing more than a raised voice or a slight grimace completely wipes the floor with the vainly screaming Harry Styles or the carefree Chris Pine. The direction and the visuals are almost unjustifiably confident, which blurs a few unnecessary lines in the final impression, but the most visible ones (the airplane, the earthquake) cannot be ignored. 50% (04.05.2023)

An atmospheric relationship drama with interesting performances. Unfortunately, the script is as dodgy as the leading lady's memory. Spending an hour and a half portraying the world and having the interesting, supporting stuff taken away in a moment is the most frustrating part. The motifs of the relationship between men and women in contemporary society are stripped away, killed without proper context. The behaviour of some of the characters is downright baffling. Chris Pine and his departure was supposed to mean what? But Florence Pugh does a great job, and even the bumbling Harry Styles is a sight to behold. Olivia Wilde's brilliant direction saves much of the film, but the crumbling story at the ending trip her up. The visuals are great, though. A more assured script next time and it'll work out. John Powell's score is superb. (18.01.2024)

Don’t Worry Darling would have a lot more power as a (shorter, for God's sake) episode of Black Mirror. As it is, it's an overlong and quite easy to see through metaphor, pulled off by the wonderful Florence Pugh. Thanks to her, thanks to Olivia Wilde's direction and thanks to the beautifully kitschy production design, the two hours pass quite briskly, and it doesn't matter so much that the ending doesn't have a great twist. (14.11.2022)

A shallow, dumb and unspeakably boring variation on The Stepford Wives. The two-hour running time is truly mind-numbing given the emptiness of the whole story. It's also a tacky, fatuous and shallow film, just like the world it's trying to satirize. The high rating on this one is downright shocking to me. (11.02.2024)

(Spoiler alert!) Don’t Worry Darling kommt wahrscheinlich nicht umhin, mit Die Frauen von Stepford und all diesen "Nicht das, was es zu sein scheint"-Filmen verglichen zu werden. Da die Ähnlichkeit mit den Frauen sehr offensichtlich ist, bekommt der Zuschauer relativ früh eine Vorstellung davon, worum es in dem Film eigentlich geht, und so erlebt er vielleicht am Ende eine grundlegendere und schockierende Wendung, die jedoch nicht ganz eintritt. Dennoch muss ich die attraktiven Bühnenbilder und Kostüme, die an die 1950er Jahre erinnern, sowie die unverwechselbare und wirklich beklemmende musikalische Untermalung loben. Dreieinviertel Sterne! (27.09.2022)

Ich habe den Inhalt nicht gelesen, aber ich habe irgendwie vermutet, dass es keine süße romantische Komödie sein wird. Und nach zehn Minuten war mir klar, dass es sich um eine weitere Variation von Die Frauen von Stepford handelt, die filmisch trotz der starken Besetzung mindestens einmal misslungen ist. Und ich frage mich eigentlich, ob ich so eine Variation überhaupt sehen wollte. Die Farben, die Atmosphäre und die Darstellung der idyllischen Welt waren großartig. Die Steigerung der Spannung war auch ziemlich gut, aber das Ende hat mich enttäuscht. Ich werde wahrscheinlich nur darüber nachdenken, warum alle Florence Pugh so sehr loben, ist sie wirklich so schön und talentiert?! Eine Probe wird für sie wahrscheinlich Rapunzel sein :-) (07.09.2023)

Neither the directorial inventiveness of Olivia Wilde nor the acting brilliance of Florence Pugh can save this one, because apart from the first 30 minutes it's the most arid rip-off of any film you've ever heard in connection with this. Go ahead and plop in any film from the "grapevine" and answer for yourself the question of whether you need to see the ones you've already seen a hundred times again. The retro look, the music, the costumes, and the dolly shots are all fine (the first quarter really provides the biggest highlights, after that it goes downhill hard), but what can you do when the whole thing is horrifyingly sterile and unimaginative. Hopefully Olivia will have better luck choosing the script the third time around, because she's a fine director. [40%] (17.10.2022)