Don’t Worry Darling, Olivia Wilde’s second directorial effort, opened last Friday amid rampant rumours of feuding among the cast and crew. Despite the intriguing off-screen storylines, critics haven’t been that impressed with the film itself, giving it a 38% approval rating on RottenTomatoes. The plot centres on Alice (Florence Pugh), a housewife who appears to live in a perfect world with her ideal husband Jack (Harry Styles), but whose life is turned upside down when she begins to notice that something is off in her seemingly idyllic suburban area. Critics believe that Don’t Worry Darling wastes time explaining the Victory Project secrets, only to finish on a cliffhanger that serves little to further the film’s argument. But things weren’t always this way in the tale.
While Insider points out, it’s not uncommon for screenplays to undergo revisions as a film is developed, the ending of Don’t Worry Darling was cut from an earlier draught that would have clarified a few points. The audience saw a film in which Alice is subjected to shock therapy for asking too many questions, and in which we later learn that she actually lives in a Matrix-like reality in which men of the modern world trap their wives in order to have an idyllic life for themselves, regardless of whether or not the wives want it.
The premise is that these guys aren’t thrilled with how far society has progressed since women aren’t as focused on finding the ideal husband as they formerly were; in reality, Alice used to be a doctor and Jack was an American rather than a Brit who was in between jobs. Don’t Worry Darling was originally developed by Carey and Shane Van Dyke, and the pair landed on the 2019 Black List for their work on the script. Wilde was so taken with it that she had Katie Silberman (Booksmart) rework it to give the female characters more agency and presence in the plot and to introduce Frank (Chris Pine) as the cult-like leader of the Victory Project. In both adaptations, Alice is forced to link to a computerised facsimile of the 1950s, but she still manages to experience some of the actual worlds.
The idea is more fully developed in the original work, though. To participate in a programme where women are not allowed to have careers, Alice learns that her husband Jack faked her death. Both of them leave the simulation, but Alice gets dragged back in. The original story concludes with Alice being sent to a mental institution after she tries to persuade everyone that they are in a fantasy realm. When Bunny (Wilde) visits Alice in the psych unit, she gives her a glimmer of hope by telling her that there is an exit portal, and Alice begins making her way slowly in that direction. The movie “Don’t Worry, Darling” has just been opened.