Film Review: Don’t Worry Darling by Olivia Wilde

Abstract

The film Don’t Worry Darling (2022) depicts unhappiness with married life, toxic masculinity, and the fight for gender equality. Seemingly set in the 1950s, several couples live in a pretentious, thriving community that shelters successful couples under an experiment. Everyone in the town of Victory lives in a simulation initiated by a character named Frank. In the actual present day, throughout the film, Frank is portrayed as a cult leader. In this experimentation he is leading, Frank has motivated and swayed men to give him their money to exist in a virtual reality stimulation similar to life during the 1950s. This voluntarily paid experiment transfers them mentally into another dimension, leaving their failed lives behind for the make-believe lifestyle they choose. The new life entails a successful career for the husband, a luxurious lifestyle, and joy, while the wives stay home cleaning, cooking, exercising, and living up to what the perfect woman entails. The film represents a vision of femininity that relies on essentialist assumptions about what it means to be a woman; it also underscores the risks of ignoring those who don’t perfectly align with this image.