Spoiler warning for the new movie ‘Don’t Worry Darling’.

‘Don’t Worry Darling’ was released in theaters on Friday, September 23rd.

It has been one of the most anticipated movies this year, due to its rather impressive ensemble cast which includes director Olivia Wilde, award-winning actress Florence Pugh, grammy-winning musician and actor Harry Styles and award-winning actor Chris Pine.

I had the chance to see the movie this weekend and was absolutely blown away by everyone’s performance.

The movie portrays a 1950s society, where every single day is the same as the last. Every morning the wives kiss their husbands off to work and during the day the wives preoccupy themselves with their daily activities such as attending ballet class and tending to the house.

What some view as a rather perfect life, others begin to question the intention of the society. The community is known as ‘The Victory Project,’ which was founded by Pine’s character, Frank. 

The interesting thing is that the wives do not actually know what the husbands do at work all day. Styles’ character, Jack Chambers, tells Alice that he is a software engineer for The Victory Project’s headquarters, but never actually goes into detail about what he does at work.

Pugh’s character, Alice Chambers, takes notice of another character, Margaret’s, rather unusual behavior as she is lashing out in a rather sophisticated community. 

This causes Alice to take a closer look at the environment around her and question what this place actually is, as she has no memory of her life before The Victory Project. 

The Victory Project is a controlled society under patriarchal leadership, where the husbands have full control over everything that happens. 

However, all controlled societies are bound to have individuals who deviate from the rules as humans desire free will, which is what happened with Margaret. 

When individuals do this, this causes ‘glitches’ in the society which are easy to spot as they are not a part of one’s day-to-day routine.

For example, when Alice was prepping for dinner one day she had a carton of eggs she was using to cook, however, she noticed that every single egg in the carton was hollow. 

Throughout the movie, there were many references to a single eyeball which symbolizes one’s perspective of the world around them, and how our perspective of the world can be vastly different than reality. 

Another common theme throughout the film was dancing as all the wives attended a daily ballet class. This, to me, symbolizes the routine and fluidity of the society and how if everyone follows the same routine at the same pace, the society will flow perfectly.

During a celebration scene, Jack earns a promotion in the company which seems like a very proud moment in his life. 

Alice, however, is hiding in the bathroom during it as she is experiencing a panic attack due to her suspicions of the community, where Wilde’s character, Bunny, who is her friend and neighbor, comforts her.

Alice reveals to Bunny that she had made her way to headquarters, which is the number one rule the wives must follow of not going there. 

Throughout the Chambers’ household, there are many references to their relationship such as multiple photos of them together, which are meant to remind Alice of the perfect life she has with him, and that she should forget any suspicions she has about her marriage and lifestyle.

Jack will also make many sexual advances on Alice to distract her from the glitches in society, however, everything in the world is monitored by the male leadership to make sure everything is perfectly in line and that the women do not deviate from their housewife roles. 

This movie brings the audience on a rollercoaster of emotion. You do not know who to trust, you begin to compare the ‘perfect’ society of The Victory Project to the world we live in and there are multiple plot twists in the end that you do not expect. 

What seems to be a perfect society, you realize, has dark secrets that make you question how far someone will go for power, which may include taking someone else’s freedom away. 

Overall, I rate it an 8.5/10.

Pflaum can be reached at [email protected].