Don’t Worry – Florence Pugh is outstanding.

Posted on 2nd February 2023

Olivia Wilde’s second feature comes to the screen weighed down by its considerable baggage, but set aside the acrimony and last minute cast changes, and Don’t Worry Darling emerges at a film that is arresting and unnerving in equal measure.

Florence Pugh is outstanding as the model 1950s wife, content to cook and clean while hubby Harry Styles goes out to make a living in a shady organisation run by the mysterious Frank. Chris Pine has great fun with the role, playing against type, and is ably supported by a cast straight out Mad Men. It is Pugh, however, that carries the film, demonstrating once again that she is one of the finest, and most versatile, actors of her generation. To say much more would be to spoil the fun of the film’s twists and turns, but if you start to wonder where it’s all going, be patient. With Styles in particular, his dodgy accent and his stilted performance might seem like a failing but are actually at the sharp end of a master plan. The key here is to have faith and stick with it. Not everything in the town of Victory is what it seems, and much the same can be said of the film itself.

The movie is beautiful to look at. Matthew Libatique’s gleaming cinematography perfectly showcases Katie Byron’s production design and Arianne Phillips’s flawless costumes. Those familiar with the genre of movie that emerges will no doubt join the dots a little sooner than the Pugh’s protagonist, and some of the plot points will have you scratching your head long after the film has finished, but none of that really matters. In an age of sequels, prequels and franchises it’s hugely refreshing to have a proper, self-contained movie that is as thought provoking as it is delightful to look at.