Lamar Reviews - "Don’t Worry Darling" (Airdate 10/7/2022)

Lamar Reviews - "Don’t Worry Darling" (Airdate 10/7/2022)

In the past few months the only thing I’ve seen more of than the trailers for Don’t Worry Darling, are the spots warning me about the water in Camp Lejeune water Lawsuit. Never drank at the camp but I’m not sure it could be any worse that sitting through this movie, only to view the worst ending in cinematic history.

Sadly, you would have to spend 2 hours and 3 minutes, or 8000 heartbeats and 2500 breaths to realize excruciating disappointment. But if I tell you that being waterboarded sucks, you’d take my word for it instead of getting wet, right? To be honest, I’ve never been waterboarded but I can’t imagine it would piss me off any more than I was when the credits started rolling.

For some of you masochists that will go see this anyway, I will be careful to not give away the twist. Notice I did not say spoil the ending, that’s because the screenwriter and director did that when they made it.

The movie begins with a community in the 1950s to 60s based on the housing and the cars, and the way the people are dressed. It is like a suburban paradise in the middle of the California Desert. The women are all housewives with perfect dresses, cooking 5 course meals, and vacuuming in high heel shoes. The men all wear suites, work at the same place, and back out their driveways in perfect unison and drive to work bumper to bumper, as their dutiful wives wave goodbye. The men work at Victory, where their work is top secret, and running the entire show is Frank, played by Chris Pine. Everybody looks up to Frank, tries to please him, and never questions him. The main focus of the movie is Alice and Jack, played by Florence Pugh and Harry Styles. One of the other wives thinks something is going on and that Frank is lying to them. She talks to Alice about it and Alice starts investigating. Soon things start to unravel and we are let in on some twists that explains what is really going on. At this point the movie has been enjoyable. All the actors did really great jobs with their roles. The cinematography was great, the vibrant colors were pleasing to the eye, and the dramatic clock was ticking, begging for an ending that would make this movie a great experience. 

But director Olivia Wilde decided to go in another direction, a very wrong direction.

The movie is 123 minutes, Rated R for sexuality, violent content, and language.

This has a Stepford Wives feel to it, and then it tries to go M. Night Shyamalan on us at the end. Not The Sixth Sense Shyamalan, the Lady in the Water Shyamalan. It winds up feeling like a really bad Twilight Zone episode.

I don’t care how good a movie is from the beginning, it has to have a good ending. The ending is the last thing I see. I affects the way I feel as I walk out the door, and how the entire movie experience was. There is no such thing as, “This was a really good movie, but, I hated the ending.” I’m sorry, if I’m having a full body massage and I am thoroughly relaxed feeling great, and the massage therapist sets my hair on fire, and someone says “Hey how was the massage?” It sucked! It’s not about the pleasure in the beginning it’s about the horrendous pain in the end!

My Score: 0 Buds

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