DON'T WORRY DARLING is set in the Victory Project, a 1950s Utopian community. When we see our protagonist doing her housework, she is putting as much verve into it as if it were a high school rock and roll dance. One is reminded of THE STEPFORD WIVES, and that turns out to be a reasonable association. (As for the town, it seems like a mixture of the Village of THE PRISONER, and the homes in EDWARD SCISSORHANDS.) If anything, the Victory Project has stricter gender boundaries than THE STEPFORD WIVES, for the men as well as for the women.

The Victory Project, it turns out, is trying to bring order instead of chaos. The women all attend a ballet class in which the instructor tells them, "We move as one."

This is both a remake of THE STEPFORD WIVES without sufficient imagination to set it above other versions of the story, and a re-imagining of it that relies on a fair number of current tropes to carry it. In both aspects, it needed to have more ideas.

Towards the end, it falls apart as the protagonist's relationship with her husband turns into a non-stop shouting match, and we are treated to ... an uninspired car chase.

(There is a scene where the protagonist wraps her head in plastic wrap. Don't try this at home kiddies!

Released theatrically 19 September 2022. Rating: high +1 (-4 to +4) or 7/10

Film Credits: https://www.imdb.com/tt10731256/reference

What others are saying: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/dont_worry_darling

					Mark R. Leeper
					Copyright 2023 Mark R. Leeper