Don't Worry Darling

          Olivia Wilde directed and co-stars in this mash up of "The Stepford Wives and "The Truman Show". Everything looks perfect in the town of Victory, but there is something wrong below the surface...Sound familiar?

          The film stars Florence Pugh as Alice, Harry Styles as her husband Jack, the aforementioned Olivia Wilde as her best friend Bunny, Nick Kroll as Dean, Bunny's husband, Chris Pine as Frank, the founder of Victory, and Gemma Chan as Shelly, Frank's wife. Co-stars include Timothy Simons as a sinister doctor and Kiki Layne as Margaret, another friend of Alice's.

           The cast does very good work with standouts being the excellent Ms. Pugh and a surprisingly good Mr. Styles. Chris Pine is perfect against type as the "cult-like" founder of Victory and the mysterious Victory Project where all the men in town work. The women stay home, cooking, cleaning, shopping and drinking. Lots of drinking.

           Ms. Wilde's direction is self-assured, fun and clever with occasionally interesting camera choices. The cinematography in general is very good with bright color visuals (great sets and costumes) hiding the darkness below. What sinks the film is the plot. With little originality, it veers off into multiple genre directions without finding solid footing. 

           There is too much repetitive imagery (shades of "Moonage Daydream") in hallucinations and memories that find Alice certain she is going mad. But of course, we know she is not...or is she? And I personally found the ending disappointing but I suppose that will be debatable.