Don't Worry Darling, a People's Choice Award: not what the critics expected

The people have spoken. Olivia Wilde's much-debated film 'Don't Worry Darling' won the award for Best Drama Movie at the 2022 People's Choice Awards. Quite a surprise for critics, who disliked the film and gave it a 38% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

The critics were blatantly honest about the film with Florence Pugh (photo) and Harry Styles. It got a 38% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a mixed response (mainly negative) from the critics. Here's the mixed bag of opinions that both the professionals and the viewers expressed when the film came out.

Talking about the controversial ending, "It is one of the film’s many confusing choices – from Alice’s sudden about-face about her seemingly idyllic life to the eventual reveal of what it is they’re all doing out there in the desert anyway – that make it clear that there were one too many Wikipedia tabs open when the script was written."

"There turns out to be a doozy of a twist in “Don’t Worry Darling” that feels both facile and like a wasted opportunity. There might have been some good ideas in here about ambition and ambivalence, desire and self-deception. But they turn out to be as fleeting as a tumbleweed blowing through suburbia by a Santa Ana wind."

"The film’s final act dissolves into a mess of illogic, irresolution, and half-formed ideas. The filmmakers pull back the curtain and point the finger, but can’t quite manage — or can’t quite be bothered — to explain themselves and to work out the consequences."

"Let’s just say you’ll have questions afterward, and those post-movie conversations will probably be more thoughtful and stimulating than the movie itself."

"Watched dont worry darling.. yeah don’t trust movie critics they’re just miserable and don’t have a life outside of movies.. the movie was phenomenal". The twitter user went on to say, "the plot twists! the acting! the crying! the screaming! the theatrics! the THRILL!" - @JONPINK

"Don’t Worry Darling glides along, its jumble of repurposed elements in lively enough harmony until it’s time to knuckle down and really get into what’s happening to Alice. It’s then that [the] screenplay begins to falter, as does Wilde’s direction."

"'Don’t Worry Darling' plays like a bad Op-Ed piece that wants you to believe its good intentions are more significant and righteous than they actually are."

Photo: Warner Bros.

"High on snazzy midcentury style but considerably less bothered by the mechanics of cohesive storytelling."

Photo: Warner Bros.

"Wilde’s failure here is primarily one of imagination. Her movie is competently acted, handsomely crafted and not half as disturbing as it wants to be. It’s nothing to worry about."

"Twisty and visually striking but fairly flat psychological thriller."

Photo: Warner Bros.

"...it superciliously pinches ideas from other films without quite understanding how and why they worked in the first place. It spoils its own ending simply by unveiling it, and in so doing shows that serious script work needed to be done on filling in the plot-holes and problems in a fantastically silly twist-reveal."

"As a director, Wilde does an effective job of provocation, and the movie may stir up its share of worthy conversations if people can move beyond the gossip that threatened to overshadow everything else before the Venice premiere or the Sept. 23 theatrical release. But it feels as if there’s a better movie in here somewhere, lost beneath the wild-eyed freneticism and the unsatisfying exposition."

Photo: Warner Bros.

"Cinematographer Matthew Libatique’s photography throughout is terrific, modish initially and then expansive and amazing in that final act."

Photo: Warner Bros.

"Pugh – in every scene – essays another accomplished, full-bodied performance, bringing viewers along with her on a journey from flirtatious to fearful."

It seems the hype around the actors in the film is what made it a worthwhile experience for one Twitter user, "I watched Don’t Worry Darling in a theater filled with Harry Styles stans and it was brilliant. Cheers every time he was on screen. Laughs whenever he struggled with certain scenes. Silence when Olivia Wilde came on screen. Cheers all around for Florence. Best experience ever." - @therealsupes

Styles, as he did in Christopher Nolan's Dunkirk and in the upcoming Toronto Film Festival premiere of My Policeman, shows he is the real deal as an actor and has great promise.

“This isn’t the disaster that some predicted – but it is a messy, convoluted affair with some very contrived plotting. Styles gives a surprisingly dull and low-wattage performance as Jack. To be fair, he is playing a very dull character, a kind of Stepford husband.”

"Florence Pugh and Chris Pine act their socks off but this Mad Men-meets-Stepford Wives thriller all feels a bit... done... the film’s big reveal is something we’ve seen elsewhere to much greater effect many times, both in film and on TV."

Photo: Warner Bros.

“The good news is that it shows considerably more ambition and is anchored by an extraordinary performance from Florence Pugh.”

"In this she graduates to fully fledged movie star – poised, glamorous and bogglingly beautiful, yet also emotionally right beside you, and lifting every scene with sparklingly smart choices."

"Pugh makes a meal of Alice and, frankly, everyone else. Her many co-stars turn in serviceable performances with occasional bits of brilliance, but no one comes close to her."

"The biggest problem with 'Don’t Worry Darling' is that it ends in the wrong place: This could have been a reasonably effective dystopian chiller, but it takes a sharp swerve into feminist triumph that feels patched-on and facile. "

Photo: Warner Bros. (Colour editing - Showbizz Daily)

"It doesn’t sting like it should in the end."

Photo: Warner Bros.