#7: Don’t Worry Darling

Release Date: September 23rd, 2022

Format: Streaming (Netflix)

Written by: Katie Silberman

Directed by: Olivia Wilde

2 Stars

The script is a Voltron of pre-existing suspense movie ideas. Stepford Housewives circa 1951 Palm Springs as the legs, Get Out as the arms, and The Matrix as its mind, body and soul. 

The photography and performances are adequate, and Olivia Wilde’s direction is strong - if a little heavy-handed - but the script bogs down the momentum of the story. There is a solid hour, at least, where we are solidly on board with Alice, the housewife who is convinced that something sinister and dangerous is happening in her town involving her husband’s work. Maybe it’s more than an hour. It feels like more than an hour.

By the time we get to The Matrix twist at the end, we feel as tired as she does with the serving of the breakfast and the making of the bed and the preparing of Jack’s dinner over and over and over and over.