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Don't Worry Darling

While her husband leaves home everyday to work in a top secret facility, a young 1950s housewife begins to question her life when she notices strange behavior from the other wives in the nei... Read all While her husband leaves home everyday to work in a top secret facility, a young 1950s housewife begins to question her life when she notices strange behavior from the other wives in the neighborhood. While her husband leaves home everyday to work in a top secret facility, a young 1950s housewife begins to question her life when she notices strange behavior from the other wives in the neighborhood.

• Olivia Wilde
• Katie Silberman
• Carey Van Dyke
• Shane Van Dyke
• Florence Pugh
• Harry Styles
• 1K User reviews
• 286 Critic reviews
• 48 Metascore
• 10 wins & 18 nominations

• Dr. Collins

• Trolley Bus Driver

• (as Marcello Julian Reyes)

• Smiling Tennis Model
• Bathing Suit Model
• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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Did you know

• Trivia Frank, the Victory Project's leader, is shown living in Kaufmann House, one of the most well-known mid-century homes in the world. Although the Kaufmann House's exterior has been shown at various times over the years in both film and TV, Don't Worry Darling is the first film to feature scenes shot on the property itself, including several peeks at its rarely seen interiors.
• Goofs When Frank is giving a speech in front of the band he holds the microphone like it was a modern mike. It is a Shure 55, which should be tilted back for usage. You speak into the front of that model, not the top.

Bunny : I choose this in here my children are still with me

Alice Chambers : They're not real

Bunny : But here they are

• Connections Featured in How Fight Scene Props Are Made for Movies & TV (2022)
• Soundtracks With You All the Time Written by Harry Styles Performed by Florence Pugh and Harry Styles (as Alice and Jack) Produced by Harry Styles Additional Production by Sammy Witte Courtesy of Erskine Records Limited / Columbia Records

User reviews 1K

• atkin-91266
• Sep 24, 2022
• How long is Don't Worry Darling? Powered by Alexa
• September 23, 2022 (United States)
• United States
• Official Warnerbros
• Em Yêu, Đừng Sợ
• Palm Springs, California, USA (Chris Pine's "Frank" character's house. [In real life: The Kaufmann Desert House by Richard Neutra])
• New Line Cinema
• New Line Productions
• Vertigo Entertainment
• See more company credits at IMDbPro
• $20,000,000 (estimated)
• $45,309,403
• $19,353,213
• Sep 25, 2022
• $87,609,403

Technical specs

• Runtime 2 hours 3 minutes
• Dolby Digital
• Dolby Atmos
• IMAX 6-Track

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Everything We Know

Everything we know about don't worry darling, we dig into all the details of olivia wilde's mysterious sophomore directorial effort starring florence pugh, harry styles, and chris pine..

TAGGED AS: Film , movies , psychological thriller , thriller

What is the Victory Project? If the characters in Olivia Wilde’ s upcoming psychological thriller were to ask about the truth behind this seemingly picture-perfect bit of 1950s American suburbia, the response they would likely get is the title of the film: “ Don’t Worry Darling .”

Luckily, we aren’t about to dismiss your questions about Wilde’s new movie ahead of its theatrical premiere this fall, so here’s everything we know about Don’t Worry Darling .

It’s Olivia Wilde’s Second Feature Film as Director

(Photo by Francois Duhamel/©Annapurna Pictures)

Olivia Wilde got her start as an actress, appearing on TV in the medical drama House and in films like Tron: Legacy , Cowboys & Aliens , and Drinking Buddies , but she’s demonstrated a real talent as a director, too. Her directorial debut, 2019’s female-focused high school buddy comedy Booksmart , was widely acclaimed. Don’t Worry Darling does not appear to be the heartfelt, feel-good romp that Booksmart was, though, and it will be interesting to see how Wilde handles this new genre. She has genre experience in her filmography, and she’s proved that she has the potential to be a great director.

When Wilde announced Don’t Worry Darling as her next project in August 2019, 18 different studios engaged in a bidding war, with New Line Cinema ultimately winning. Warner Bros. is distributing the film.

The Plot Feels Like The Truman Show Meets The Matrix Meets The Manhattan Project

(Photo by Warner Bros. Pictures)

Unlike so many movies these days, Don’t Worry Darling is not a remake, nor is it based on any pre-existing book, comic, or other known property. The script that would eventually become Don’t Worry Darling was written by brothers Carey and Shane Van Dyke , and it earned a spot on 2019’s Black List — an annual round-up of acclaimed and buzzed-about screenplays that haven’t been produced yet. Katie Silberman , who wrote the screenplay for Booksmart , did a rewrite of the script and wrote the final screenplay.

Here is the official synopsis for Don’t Worry Darling :

“Alice and Jack are lucky to be living in Victory, the experimental company town housing the men who work for the top-secret Victory Project and their families. Life is perfect, with every resident’s needs met by the company. All they ask in return is unquestioning commitment to the Victory cause. But when cracks in their idyllic life begin to appear, exposing flashes of something much more sinister lurking beneath the attractive façade, Alice can’t help questioning what they’re doing in Victory, and why. Just how much is Alice willing to lose to expose what’s really going on in paradise?”

(Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)

Speaking at CinemaCon in April 2022, Wilde gave some indication of what sort of vibe people could expect from the film. According to Variety, the story was inspired by movies like Inception , The Matrix , and The Truman Show .

“Imagine a life where you have everything you could want. Not just material, tangible things… like a beautiful house, perfect weather and gorgeous cars. But also the things that really matter, like true love or the perfect partner or real trusted friendships and a purpose that feels meaningful,” Wilde said at CinemaCon. “What would it take for you to give up that life, that perfect life. What are you really willing to sacrifice to do what’s right?” Wilde asked. “Are you willing to dismantle the system that’s designed to serve you?”

The first and, so far, only trailer for the movie premiered in early May. It’s an effective, eerie trailer that offers a good sense of what the vibe of the movie will be without spoiling too much in terms of plot. The swingin’ party at the beginning and the chic ‘50s aesthetics all look quite nice, but they soon give way to ominous threats, a sense of unease, and building action as it becomes clear that this is not just a normal period piece. Something is very, very wrong in Victory.

The Cast Features Big Names and Rising Stars

Florence Pugh ( Black Widow ) stars as Alice, the wife who seems to be asking too many questions about the Victory Project. Opposite her is Harry Styles , who is best known for the band One Direction but who has since made successful forays into acting, appearing in Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk and the post-credits sequence of Marvel’s Eternals . Styles plays Jack, Alice’s husband and an employee who works on the Victory Project.

In addition to directing, Wilde appears in the movie herself, playing Bunny, another one of the wives who live in Victory. Gemma Chan ( Eternals ), KiKi Layne ( The Old Guard ), and ​​ Kate Berlant , a comedian who has had small roles in movies like Sorry to Bother You and Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood , also appear to be playing wives. Sydney Chandler, actress and daughter of Kyle Chandler, stars as well.

Chris Pine ( Wonder Woman ) plays Frank, who seems to be a higher-up at the company behind the Victory Project, and he menaces Alice at one point in the trailer. Nick Kroll ( Big Mouth ), Douglas Smith ( Big Love ), Ari’el Stachel ( The Band’s Visit ), Asif Ali, and Timothy Simons ( Veep ) also star.

Filming Wrapped in February 2021, But Was Delayed Due to COVID

Filming for Don’t Worry Darling began in October 2020 and concluded in February of 2021. It was halted for two weeks in November when somebody on the set tested positive for COVID-19. In an Instagram post celebrating the end of filming, Pugh went to great lengths to praise everybody who worked on the movie for getting it made despite the ongoing pandemic.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CLSE6F9F_vv/?utm_source=ig_embed&ig_rid=50556787-4d96-46d0-a5cb-20e64db4d3de

This Movie Is Why Olivia Wilde and Harry Styles Are Dating

(Photo by Neil Mockford/Getty Images)

Don’t Worry Darling is a notable movie for fans of celebrity gossip, because Olivia Wilde and leading man Harry Styles started dating after they met while making the movie. According to Us Weekly , the pair hit it off almost immediately and made the relationship public in January of last year. Wilde had previously been engaged to Ted Lasso star Jason Sudeikis , with whom she has two children, but they broke off their engagement in November 2020. Styles is reportedly not the cause of the split.

During Wilde’s presentation at CinemaCon, somebody got on the stage and handed her an envelope. It was later revealed that she had, in fact, been served child custody papers. Sudeikis said he was unaware the papers would be delivered like that.

Don’t Worry Darling opens in theaters everywhere on September 23, 2022.

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‘don’t worry darling’ review: florence pugh and harry styles can’t redeem olivia wilde’s stale reality-warp nightmare.

Chris Pine also stars in this mind-bending psycho-thriller (screening out of competition in Venice) set in an idyllic experimental community where Eisenhower-era values hide something sinister underneath.

By David Rooney

David Rooney

Chief Film Critic

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One of the big draws, of course, is “It” boy Harry Styles , whose rabid fans appear to feel such deranged ownership that they’ve scarcely refrained from burning Wilde effigies to decry their off-camera relationship. She’s 10 years his senior! How dare she! Leaving all that nonsense aside — it’s their business, people, relax — Styles carries himself with confidence as eager young company man and loving but increasingly conflicted husband Jack Chambers.

The early part of the movie — a nonstop river of cocktails fueling a whirl of parties during which Jack and his wife, Alice (Pugh), can’t keep their hands off each other — is so damn sexy you might want to move into the mysterious Victory Project community and disregard the signs of something sinister behind all the smiling faces and perfect marriages.

When things turn dark and strange and Jack’s idealized world is threatened, that’s when doubts arise about Styles’ range. Is he just a magnetic screen presence who looks fabulous in 1950s threads, or an actor capable of depth and nuance? He’s fine in the role, but based on this, the jury’s still out.

In place of racism, Don’t W orry Darling creeps us out with the rigid enforcement of antiquated gender roles — a 1950s patriarchal order bent on convincing women that homemaking and raising children are the ultimate aspiration while keeping them in the dark about the mysteries of their husbands’ work for the company. But there’s nothing complex or subversive behind that façade of perky housewives and roosts ruled by men.

It’s certainly an eye-catching setup. Arianne Phillips’ retro-chic fashion-spread costumes and Katie Byron’s swanky midcentury-modern sets (Palm Springs, California, is the direct reference) are a glossy visual feast, even if there’s a hint of Ryan Murphy-style art-directorial excess. But the screenplay — a Black List title by brothers Carey and Shane Van Dyke, retooled by Katie Silberman, one of Wilde’s writers on Booksmart — doesn’t come together with persuasive revelations once the cracks in the utopia have been laid bare.

They clean house and then get together to gossip, hit the cocktail cart, swim in the pool or shop at the special Victory retail outlets where everything is provided for them, free of charge. In between, they attend dance classes conducted by the glacially poised Shelley ( Gemma Chan ), whose husband, Frank (Pine), is the Svengali-like mastermind behind Victory. “There is beauty in control,” coos Shelley. “There is grace in symmetry.”

Then they head home to fix dinner, greeting their husbands at the door with a drink in hand. If they’re like Alice, and still an object of insatiable desire, their painstakingly prepared roast beef spread might be swept to the floor while Jack chows down on something else entirely.

At a welcome mixer for wide-eyed new couple Violet (Sydney Chandler) and Bill (Douglas Smith), Frank holds court like a slick evangelist, celebrating the rewards of a world reshaped “into the way things are supposed to be.” But a tear in the fabric of this carefully curated reality becomes evident when Margaret (KiKi Layne) starts freaking out and has to be whisked home by her concerned husband Ted (Ari’el Stachel).

When Alice witnesses a plane crash and is told she imagined it, a confrontation with Frank begins to build. These scenes between Pugh’s frightened but tenacious Alice and Pine’s slippery manipulator Frank, who seems amused and more than a little enticed by her rebelliousness, generate real sparks as she accuses him of controlling them. It’s a treat to watch Pine put his ridiculously handsome looks and easygoing charm to such malevolent use.

Alice’s increasing resistance to the culty Victory rules makes life difficult for Jack, especially once he’s chosen by Frank for advancement at a company function that culminates in the chilling chant: “Whose world is this? Ours!” This is also the one scene where Styles gets to cut loose, launching into a boisterous rubber-limbed dance routine onstage to celebrate his promotion. There’s an air of almost manic determination in his moves, as if Jack is aware the world is closing in on the woman he loves but tries to stave off that disaster by sheer force of will.

The tense final act goes through the motions but doesn’t deliver where it counts — with a provocative payoff. Even so, it’s gripping to watch Pugh go up against doctors deftly gaslighting her, or worse, and nasty-looking men in red coveralls working for Victory security, ready to haul off anyone threatening to expose the unwholesome underbelly of this paternalistic paradise. The menace that Alice is fleeing is undermined by shaky storytelling, but to Pugh’s credit, we fear for her throughout the pulse-racing climax.

Part of that is also thanks to the brisk propulsion of cinematographer Matthew Libatique’s crisp visuals and the additional push of John Powell’s big, forceful score. It’s always good to see an emerging woman director shepherd a large-scale project like this, with plum resources and a deluxe cast. But Don’t Worry Darling is obvious even when it turns outlandish. How many more times do we need the ironic deployment of the doo-wop classic “Sh-Boom (Life Could Be a Dream)” to be convinced it can be a nightmare?

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• Entertainment
• Breaking Down the End of <i>Don’t Worry Darling</i>

Breaking Down the End of Don’t Worry Darling

Warning: This post contains spoilers for Don’t Worry Darling

Early in Don’t Worry Darling , which drops on HBO Max Nov. 7, our hero Alice (Florence Pugh) begins to suspect that something is amiss. Alice and her handsome husband Jack (Harry Styles) are the picture-perfect protagonists of Olivia Wilde’s controversial and highly-anticipated follow-up to Booksmart , her directorial debut . They live in a 1950s-era Palm Springs-esque desert suburb dotted with tidy midcentury modern homes. They’re young and deeply in love, one of a number of couples who live an enviable life filled with poolside cocktail parties.

A cultish figure named Frank (Chris Pine) holds sway over the company town, which he has named Victory. Frank’s underlings are forbidden from sharing any information about their jobs with their spouses or families. Every day the husbands seemingly drive off to a bunker in the desert where they work on a super-secret project while their partners stay home to clean, cook, shop, and gossip.

The audience may find it odd that all these perfectly coiffed wives emerge from their houses onto their shared cul-de-sac at the exact same time every morning to send their husbands off to work. But Alice doesn’t catch on to the greater mystery of the movie until she cracks a carton’s worth of eggs and finds them missing their yolks.

Read More: Don’t Worry Darling Is Imperfect, But Not Nearly as Bad as Its Detractors-in-Advance Might Hope

She wanders into the desert, sees the bunker where the men work, and investigates. Over the course of the film, Alice argues with a series of men who dismiss her concerns as fits of womanly hysteria.

You might be here because you’re curious about the drama surrounding the movie , which has at times overshadowed the film itself. Maybe you’ve noticed that the marketing surrounding the movie hints at a big twist. Or maybe you saw saw the film and want to dig in deeper into what it all means.

Here’s everything you need to know about the ending of Don’t Worry Darling .

What happens in the movie?

Alice suspects something weird is going on with her husband Jack and their Stepford Wives existence. The wives are forbidden from going into the desert that surrounds the town. They occasionally whisper about what it is their husbands are actually doing all day and theorize about the strange sonic booms that disturb their leisurely afternoons. The fact that the town is dubbed “Victory” suggests that the men are working on a Manhattan Project -adjacent nuclear weapon or something similar.

Things go sideways when one of Alice’s friends, Margaret (KiKi Layne), wanders into the desert after her child and claims she saw something terrible there. The company tells the town that the son died in the desert, further reinforcing the idea that wandering off is dangerous. But Margaret says the company took away her son as punishment for uncovering whatever mystery she found. Margaret then slices her throat open in front of Alice, seemingly killing herself, though a doctor tells Alice that Margaret recovered. We never see Margaret again.

Read More: If Olivia Wilde Were a Man

Around this time, Alice sees a plane crash in the desert and wanders into forbidden territory to find it. Instead, she finds the bunker where all the men work. She approaches the building and, when she touches it, sees a bunch of trippy images, including black-and-white dream-like sequences of Busby Berkeley-style dancers. (These women are performing for men, if that imagery wasn’t obvious enough.)

She reawakens in bed and spends the rest of the movie trying to unravel the mystery. In a series of increasingly desperate episodes, she confronts her husband, her neighbor and confidante Bunny (Wilde), and Frank. After a crackling dinner party showdown, Frank all but admits to Alice that he’s manipulating the people of Victory. But he departs the party before Alice can finish her line of questioning, leaving Alice to argue with the spineless Jack. Jack pretends he is going to run away with Alice but instead sets her up to be kidnapped by a group of men and bemoans his own bad fortune as she’s dragged away. The goons try to reprogram her through electroshock therapy.

What’s the twist?

It’s all a simulation!

The electroshock therapy doesn’t go as planned. While lying on the table, Alice accesses memories of her real life.

It turns out that she is, in reality, a doctor, not a housewife. She lives in a dreary city apartment and works terrible hours. Jack is her partner in that universe too. He doesn’t particularly like how much Alice works or that she’s the breadwinner in their relationship. The movie attempts to up Jack’s creep-factor in these scenes by giving Harry Styles very un-Harry Styles-like hair and clothes.

While listening to a creepy podcast with men’s rights activist vibes, Jack hears about special VR technology invented by Frank that allows a man and the woman of his choosing to be plugged into a ’50s-style universe. The woman, it should be noted, doesn’t consent to the virtual reality experience. Nor is she even necessarily the man’s partner—she can be just some random woman that the man presumably…kidnaps? Yikes. Jack signs up himself and Alice, without Alice’s consent.

When Alice returns “home”—well, to her 1950s simulation home—she flinches as she kisses Jack, and more real-world recollections flood in. She confronts Jack, and he explains that he made this choice because she was miserable in the outside world working long hours in a hospital. Now she just gets to relax by the pool. He wishes that he never had to leave the simulation himself, but he does so he can go to a job in the outside world every day and fund his creepy daydream.

Alice screams that she chose her so-called miserable life, and that she enjoyed it. That’s the tricky thing about the patriarchy: It often disguises itself as domestic bliss.

Alice then accidentally kills Jack. Alice’s neighbor Bunny shows up and reveals that she knows they’re living in a simulation. Bunny is there voluntarily because she lost her children in real life and she gets to see her fake children in virtual reality. (A strange revelation considering that all the messiness and joy of children seems to be sapped from Bunny’s offspring. They are mere automatons.)

Bunny also mentions that if you kill a man in virtual reality he dies on the outside. (Why? Don’t think about it too much). Alice doesn’t seem all that sad about murdering her controlling loser of a husband. Bunny, a font of crucial information, tells Alice to run to the bunker in the desert. It’s the only means of escaping the simulation. Again, why? Perhaps because Wilde wanted to film a cool chase scene with old-school cars. Alice just barely makes it. The end.

Read More: The 52 Most Anticipated Movies of Fall 2022

Okay, so what was with that plane?

Alice watching a plane crash kicks off the entire adventure. Was it a glitch in the VR experience? It’s hard to imagine that Frank would purposefully program that into the simulation.

What about that moment when Alice almost gets crushed to death while cleaning?

Alice has several trippy experiences, like the wall of her house nearly crushing her to death and the dance class hallucination. Is that a glitch or Frank messing with her head as some sort of punishment? It’s never made clear.

Can women die in the simulation?

Apparently not. Bunny specifically says that if men die in virtual reality they die in real life. Why would women be the exception? Unclear.

Margaret slashes her throat early in the film and disappears. She either died by suicide in real life or found that killing herself was the only way to escape the simulation.

How does Alice eat or go to the bathroom while using the simulator?

Even if Alice’s safety isn’t threatened inside the simulation, how is she surviving outside of it?

We see Alice hooked up to the simulator machine in a bed. Didn’t any of her coworkers or family ask about her going missing? Once she’s attached to the machine in the bed, how does she eat? And how does she go to the bathroom? Does Jack have to take care of that? That would seem to zap a lot of the “romance” (and the quotation marks are doing a lot of work there) from Jack’s fantasy with Alice in dream land.

Why did Frank’s wife stab Frank?

The status of Frank’s wife Shelley (Gemma Chan) throughout the movie is a mystery. Does she know that she’s living in a simulation like Bunny? Or did Frank trick her? Presumably the latter: He figured out how to capture his wife in his 1950s suburbia and then podcasted about it to other insecure men across the world.

At the end of the movie, when Alice is making her escape, Frank is talking on the phone with his in-virtual-reality security about how to stop Alice. Shelley casually walks over and slips a knife into Frank. Why does she do this now? Did she just figure out what Frank was up to? How did she solve the mystery, since Frank remains opaque on his phone call? Did other clues like Margaret slitting her own throat or Alice confronting Frank at a dinner party not tip her off previously?

Shelley also makes a comment about how it’s now “her turn.” Her turn to run the simulation? Is she going to help women entrap men there? Change the simulation? Escape? We will never know because we never see her again.

Why did Harry Styles dance at that company party?

There is a scene in the middle of the movie when Frank promotes Jack, and then Jack does a really long, elaborate dance onstage at a party while Alice has a breakdown in the bathroom. I have absolutely no explanation for why this scene exists in the movie. Maybe there’s a Dance Dance Revolution mini-game within this virtual reality universe.

Jack’s dance does inspire the men of Victory to start chanting about how they’re creating the future in a manner that’s reminiscent of Nazi rallies.

What are the influences on Don’t Worry Darling ?

The most obvious touchstone for Don’t Worry Darling is The Stepford Wives . For the uninitiated, Stepford Wives is a horror novel-turned-movie (released in 1975, followed by a 2004 adaptation with Nicole Kidman) that satirizes men’s reactions to women’s liberation. It centers on a photographer named Joanna who moves with her husband to an eerily perfect town. All the housewives are vapid, strangely devoted to housework, and subservient to their husbands.

Joanna investigates her suspicions that something is amiss in the town while her husband spends an increasing amount of time at the men’s club. Joanna finds out that the women in the town used to have thriving careers but became docile housewives with notably larger breasts and no remaining interest in their previous jobs. She eventually discovers the men are transforming the women into, essentially, sex robots. She is betrayed by her own husband and turned into one herself.

There’s a moment in the Stepford Wives book in which Joanna briefly returns to the city. She observes the working women on the streets and describes them “rushed, sloppy, irritated—and alive.” That line beautifully illustrates the contrast between Alice’s real life as a doctor (alive) and her imagined one as a housewife (in a trance).

Wilde has also cited Betty Friedan’s earth-shattering book, The Feminine Mystique , which chronicled the dissatisfaction of the American housewife and helped launch second-wave feminism in the U.S., as an influence.

The visuals borrow heavily from 1960s films like the Sean Connery James Bond movies, but also (more recently) from Mad Men . The stifling midcentury marriage between Alice and Jack recalls that of Revolutionary Road . Alice’s realization that she is being gaslit and her eventual escape echoes the finale of Get Out . Alice’s name may be a nod to the Alice who falls down the rabbit hole into a topsy-turvy world in Alice in Wonderland . The simulation plot recollects films like The Truman Show and Pleasantville .

What does Don’t Worry Darling have to do with The Matrix ?

The Matrix is a touchstone, not only because the entire plot of that movie centers on the hero deciding to unplug from a beautiful-looking but unreal simulation in favor of a grittier life in reality, but also because of The Matrix’ s inadvertent influence on the language of men’s rights activists.

In The Matrix , the hero Neo (Keanu Reeves) must choose between a blue pill to continue his delusion or a red pill to wake up to reality. In certain corners of the Internet, dissatisfied men use the term “red pill” to refer to the moment they “realized” that women allegedly run the world. Red Pill forums on the Internet have become a place where mostly white, mostly straight men air misogynistic views on women and bemoan their diminishing status in society. (The creators of The Matrix , Lana and Lilly Wachowski, both trans women, have since explained that The Matrix is actually an allegory for coming out as trans, to the consternation of many men’s rights activists.)

Wilde has specifically cited these dark corners of the Internet as inspiration for the villains of the film. One can easily imagine Jack identifying himself as someone who was “red pilled” when he felt emasculated by his wife’s earning potential. He sought refuge among a community of men yearning for a time when men controlled women’s bodies and behavior. Ironically, in Wilde’s movie, these red-pilled men purposefully delude themselves in order to gain back power instead of living in reality.

What do incels, men’s rights activists, and Jordan Peterson have to do with the plot?

A lot! The main antagonists of Don’t Worry Darling are insecure men who want to control women, their careers, and their bodies. Jack doesn’t feel like he’s taking care of Alice—so he takes her as his prisoner. After hearing Frank lecture about men losing power in society and needing to prove their manliness on a podcast, Jack skulks through the rain in the middle of the night to find Frank in real life and sign up for this Victory Project.

We don’t know the motivations for the other men sticking their partners or other random women inside the simulation, but we can guess that they’re all controlling and creepy, and their sexual relationships reek of a lack of consent. These types of men will be familiar to any woman who spends time on the Internet. And there are certain figures who cultivate followings of disaffected men who, after millennia of enjoying advantages in the world, blame the advancement of women for any current ills.

Wilde told fellow director Maggie Gyllenhaal in Interview Magazine that she based Chris Pine’s character specifically on one such incendiary thinker: Jordan Peterson. Peterson has gained devotees among such men who blame advancements in gender relations for their misery. He has made a career of inflammatory statements about trans rights, gender pronouns, and gender equity.

“We based that character on this insane man, Jordan Peterson, who is this pseudo-intellectual hero to the incel community,” Wilde said. Gyllenhaal said she didn’t know the term “incel.” (Bless Gyllenhaal for not spending all her time on Twitter.) Wilde explained that it refers to “involuntarily celibate,” “basically disenfranchised, mostly white men, who believe they are entitled to sex from women.”

Wilde added: “They believe that society has now robbed them — that the idea of feminism is working against nature, and that we must be put back into the correct place.”

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Don't Worry Darling: release date, reviews, trailer, cast and everything we know about the Olivia Wilde movie

Florence Pugh and Harry Styles lead this psychological thriller.

Olivia Wilde made a splash with the first movie she directed, Booksmart , which makes her second outing, Don’t Worry Darling , one that many have been eagerly awaiting among the slate of 2022 new movies . The actress/director isn’t resting on her laurels either, as Don’t Worry Darling looks to be a bold and big swing.

An original idea written by Katie Silberman ( Booksmart ), Carey Van Dyke & Shane Van Dyke ( The Silence ) and featuring a fantastic ensemble highlighted by Florence Pugh and Harry Styles, there’s a lot to be excited about with Don’t Worry Darling . 

Here’s everything you need to know about the movie.

When is the Don’t Worry Darling release date?

Don’t Worry Darling has a release date of September 23 for the US, UK and other global markets. It plays exclusively in movie theaters to start.

What is the Don’t Worry Darling plot?

Billed as a thriller, Don’t Worry Darling centers on husband and wife, Alice and Jack, who live in an experimental 1950s utopian society, or so it seems. Alice begins to fear that there is more to their surroundings than meets the eye. Here is the official synopsis from Warner Bros.:

"Alice and Jack are lucky to be living in the idealized community of Victory, the experimental company town housing the men who work for the top-secret Victory Project and their families. The 1950’s societal optimism espoused by their CEO, Frank (Pine) — equal parts corporate visionary and motivational life coach — anchors every aspect of daily life in the tight-knit desert utopia.

"While the husbands spend every day inside the Victory Project Headquarters, working on the 'development of progressive materials,' their wives—including Frank’s elegant partner, Shelley — get to spend their time enjoying the beauty, luxury and debauchery of their community. Life is perfect, with every resident’s needs met by the company. All they ask in return is discretion and unquestioning commitment to the Victory cause.

"But when cracks in their idyllic life begin to appear, exposing flashes of something much more sinister lurking beneath the attractive façade, Alice can’t help questioning exactly what they’re doing in Victory and why. Just how much is Alice willing to lose to expose what’s really going on in this paradise?"

What is Don't Worry Darling rated?

Don't Worry Darling is rated R for US audiences for "sexuality, violent content and language." The movie is rated 15 in the UK.

How long is Don't Worry Darling?

Don't Worry Darling has a runtime of two hours and two minutes.

Who is in the Don’t Worry Darling cast?

Playing the main couple of Alice and Jack are Florence Pugh and Harry Styles. 

Pugh is an Oscar-nominated actress ( Little Women ) who has truly broken out over the last couple of years. In addition to Little Women she has starred in Black Widow and appeared in the Disney Plus original series Hawkeye , as well as Midsommar , Fighting with My Family and the TV mini series The Little Drummer Girl . 

Most will know Harry Styles as the singing superstar (formerly of pop group One Direction, now solo), but he has been scratching his actor itch over the last couple of years. He made his acting debut in Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk and, like Pugh, has joined the MCU, appearing in an Eternals post-credits scene as Eros. He has another 2022 movie coming outside of Don’t Worry Darling called My Policeman .

While Pugh and Styles headline Don’t Worry Darling , the rest of the cast is incredibly impressive as well. Chris Pine ( All the Old Knives , Star Trek ) is set to play Victory Project CEO, Frank. There’s also Gemma Chan ( Eternals ) as Shelley, Nick Kroll ( Big Mouth ) as Bill, Timothy Simmons ( Veep ) as Dean, Kiki Layne ( The Old Guard ) as Margaret, Douglas Smith ( Clarice ) as John and Olivia Wilde, pulling double duty in front of and behind the camera, as Mary.

Don't Worry Darling reviews — what the critics are saying

The reaction to Don't Worry Darling hasn't been great. As of September 22, the movie has a 31% "Rotten" score on Rotten Tomatoes , which classifies it as "Rotten;" it scores a little better on Metacritic , 48, which puts it in the "average/mixed" range.

WTW's Don't Worry Darling review praises the lead performance by Florence Pugh, but admits the mystery at the center of the story isn't too tough to crack for the audience, which can make it a frustrating watch.

Don’t Worry Darling trailer

Don’t Worry Darling shared its first look trailer as part of the 2022 CinemaCon convention at the end of April for movie theater owners, but it is now available for all to watch. It addition to Styles and Pugh getting hot and steamy , the big mystery at the center of Don’t Worry Darling looks very intriguing. Watch the full trailer directly below. 

Below is another trailer for Don't Worry Darling , which plays up even more of the psychological elements that the movie is going to dive in to.

Olivia Wilde, Don’t Worry Darling director

As mentioned above, Don’t Worry Darling is Olivia Wilde’s second directing job following 2019’s Booksmart . Wilde was highly praised for her work on Booksmart , which earned a 96% on Rotten Tomatoes and an Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature.

Wilde isn’t slowing down as a director either. She has signed on to direct the movie Perfect , which tells the story of famous US Olympics Kerri Strugg, and is in line to direct an Untitled Sony/Marvel movie, expected to be a female-centric story.

Olivia Wilde and her rise as a director was the focus of a cover story from Variety .

Of course, before she broke out as a director, Wilde was a well known actress, whose credits include House , Tron: Legacy , Cowboys & Aliens , Drinking Buddies and Richard Jewell . She’s also set to appear in another 2022 movie, Damien Chazelle’s Babylon .

Harry Styles' original song for Don't Worry Darling

Harry Styles not only lent his acting talents to Don't Worry Darling , but the world famous musician also contributed an original song to the movie.

Reported by Variety , Styles composed what is being described by director Olivia Wilde as "the trigger song," something that Florence Pugh's character hums and is a kind of theme for the movie. Styles describes the song as both "sweet and creepy, entirely dependent on the context."

It's not clear at this time if there are lyrics to the tune or if we can expect any kind of music video for it. If not, we'll probably have to wait until either a soundtrack is released or the movie has begun playing.

Don't Worry Darling off-screen drama

Unfortunately, the off-screen drama around Don't Worry Darling has seemed to grasp more of the attention than the actual movie. While we won't go into too much detail, some of it has been centered around star Florence Pugh and Olivia Wilde at odds, reportedly over the director beginning a relationship with co-star Harry Styles during filming.

Wilde recently addressed a few of the other buzzy topics on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, including whether Harry Styles spit on Chris Pine and the debate regarding Shia LaBeouf's exit from the movie:

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Michael Balderston is a DC-based entertainment and assistant managing editor for What to Watch, who has previously written about the TV and movies with TV Technology, Awards Circuit and regional publications. Spending most of his time watching new movies at the theater or classics on TCM, some of Michael's favorite movies include Casablanca , Moulin Rouge! , Silence of the Lambs , Children of Men , One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest and Star Wars . On the TV side he enjoys Only Murders in the Building, Yellowstone, The Boys, Game of Thrones and is always up for a Seinfeld rerun. Follow on Letterboxd .

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'Don't Worry Darling' review: At least Florence Pugh sparkles in buzzy-but-flat retro thriller

“Don’t Worry Darling” has certainly been central to a litany of drama before its release. Oral sex scenes in the movie trailer. The director getting hit with legal papers onstage at CinemaCon . Said director reportedly dating one of her stars  and maybe feuding with the other . A purportedly fired actor  hitting back at the filmmaker.

All that scandalous hubbub is more scintillating than what actually happens on screen in the twisty and visually striking but fairly flat psychological thriller.

Director Olivia Wilde pulled off a fantastic debut with the excellent coming-of-age film “Booksmart,” but "Don't Worry Darling," her second outing with writer Katie Silberman, doesn’t have the same spark. Starring Florence Pugh and pop star Harry Styles , Wilde's follow-up film (★★½ out of four; rated R; in theaters Friday)  imagines an idyllic (at least for the 1950s-loving crowd) community where there’s something sinister going on underneath the happy-shirt exterior. And while there’s a definite “The Stepford Wives” sort of vibe, the narrative themes (which do lean timely) lack subtlety and nuance.

'Really vicious': Olivia Wilde breaks silence on custody documents from Jason Sudeikis

Thankfully, Pugh keeps it watchable as a young married woman trying to keep her sanity amidst a ton of gaslighting and constant doo-wop songs.

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Alice (Pugh) and Jack (pop star Harry Styles) live a regular, mostly vanilla life. Like all the other dudes in their cul-de-sac, Jack zooms off after morning breakfast to his secretive engineering job for the Victory Project – the mysterious company that’s given them a home in the desert filled with white picket fences and golden oldies. The housewives, including Alice’s next-door neighbor, Bunny (Wilde), gossip when the men leave, and Alice begins her usual day of cleaning the entire house, until Jack gets home and they’re all over each other.

But the overly attentive Alice begins to wonder whether the Victory existence is all it’s cracked up to be – and not just because she breaks eggs that weirdly have nothing inside them. She begins to have strange blackouts, nightmares and visions, like of showgirls doing a Bob Fosse routine from hell. In addition, her friend Margaret (KiKi Layne) has become persona non grata after venturing where she shouldn’t have gone and seeing something she shouldn’t have seen.

'Don't Worry Darling': Olivia Wilde says Harry Styles is 'a revelation' in sexy thriller

Jack tries to maintain the household status quo, especially when his beloved boss, Frank (Chris Pine in full-on suave mode), taps him for a new promotion. Alice keeps asking questions in a place that demands unwavering loyalty, though, which soon puts her under Frank’s watchful eye.

Wilde has meticulously crafted a retro landscape that’s both familiar and nostalgic, but also unnerving in its too-clean facade, while at the same time successfully creating an inner, “Get Out”-inspired horror show for Alice, where the walls quite literally close in on her. There’s also a great chase with vintage cars that lends a “Mad Max”-meets-“North by Northwest” flair to the mind-bending narrative. But those anticipating an erotic thriller need to temper sexpectations: There are only a couple of love scenes, and neither are what you would call torrid. (When Alice launches a roast off the dinner table for a little sh-boom sh-boom and some rama lama ding-dong with Jack, it leans more humorous than hot.)

Shia LaBeouf: Actor denies Olivia Wilde firing him from 'Don't Worry Darling' for 'combative' process

Pugh, like she’s done with “Black Widow,” “Midsommar” and others, continues to make everything she’s in better – and, boy howdy, it’s needed here as the plot grows more convoluted. She takes Alice from ever-doting to paranoid conspiracy theorist and back again, making both happiness and terror feel impressively authentic in a waxwork world.

Styles has already taken (warranted) grief for an accent that’s all over the place , and his Jack is also a bit of a nonfactor for much of the runtime, though he gets more to do after the Big Reveal. (If you're paying attention, it’s not that hard to figure out what exactly is happening.) The lack of chemistry between Pugh and Styles is another disconnect – her dynamic with Pine, albeit antagonistic, is far more effective and not explored nearly enough.

At a particularly tense dinner party, Frank belittles Alice by saying she’s the “challenge” he’s been looking for, but ultimately she’s disappointed him. Unfortunately, the same can be said of “Darling,” an ambitious meal with some key ingredients that just feels undercooked.

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There is something bothering Alice. She’s underwater, watching the murky light and floating seaweed above her. She is not swimming back up for air—at least not yet. The scene is a precursor to something that will happen later in the movie “Alice, Darling,” but it’s also a visual metaphor for the character’s state of mind. In reality, she’s back on land, meeting her friends at a restaurant in the city. Although she’s in good company now, her mind is elsewhere. Below the surface of her smile, Alice ( Anna Kendrick ) is holding on to an abusive partner, Simon ( Charlie Carrick ), a truth revealed in a handful of uncomfortable conversations, guilt trips, and anxious behavior like pulling out her hair and panic attacks. Her relationship’s red flags are as clear as flashing billboard signs for her worried friends, but Alice looks past these warnings as if they’re her partner’s love language. Under the guise of a birthday getaway, her friends Sophie ( Wunmi Mosaku ) and Tess ( Kaniehtiio Horn ) stage an intervention for their friend sinking away from them: swim up and get out. Save yourself. 

Mary Nighy ’s feature debut “Alice, Darling” is a straightforward drama about getting caught in the undertow of a bad romance. The telltale signs seem obvious to outsiders like her friends and viewers, but for Alice, she’s still performing the mental gymnastics of justifying his controlling demands to her body, attention, and time and interpreting them as love and affection. She’s dug into a defensive position and unable to see the damage Simon’s behavior has caused her, how she fears asking for time for herself, how suffocatingly he clings to her skin.

Nighy balances these perspectives as generously as she can. Almost every exchange or nervous glance from friend to friend or lover to lover feels like a hostage negotiation. What should be tender moments between the young couple are often cruel rounds of verbal and emotional abuse. The tension of the situation is baked within every confrontational staging between the pair or how detached Alice looks and feels from her friends. Even when Simon isn’t physically there in the scene, the fallout of his presence is visually evident. It’s isolated Alice from those who truly care about her. 

The murkiness in Alice’s relationship carries over to the film’s aesthetics thanks to cinematographer Mike McLaughlin . Alice’s world looks a little less bright than the one her friends live in, as if she only ever ventures out on overcast days. There’s a warm tone to the girlfriend’s cabin trip to the woods, but something still looks off, like the peace and serenity of the location are somehow missing. In a move that overcomplicates the already tense drama at hand, Alanna Francis ’ script adds an element of danger to their trip through a subplot about a missing young woman. Alice becomes fixated on her, perhaps fatalistically so, and the mystery becomes an excuse for Simon to escalate his control over her. Maybe it’s to be a cautionary tale for Alice or something to entice her to escape, but none of this quite pans out as effectively as her narrative journey with her friends. 

As the movie’s namesake, Kendrick embodies the tortured feeling of holding onto someone harmful. Alice tells her friends, “He wouldn’t love me if he knew how bad I am,” justifying her mistreatment repeatedly to them and herself. Kendrick’s performance is a stunning departure from her usual bubbly screen presence. That persona fades behind the distracted stare of a person who has to calculate every pro and con of what they say before they say it. She is overwhelmed by the pressure and unable to swim up for air, an SOS which Kendrick communicates through a range of reactions, from catatonic vacant stares to succumbing to heaving waves of a panic attack on the bathroom floor. She’s committed to this story and her character. 

Kendrick’s performance is one of the strongest aspects of “Alice, Darling.” Under Nighy’s direction, they create an emotional portrait of someone on the verge of being lost to a warped distortion of love but who realizes they were surrounded by the real thing the entire time. For every cutting remark Simon makes at her expense, her friends are trying to rescue the person they knew before. That tension makes for good drama, but it takes the team’s sensitivity to make it feel as authentic as it does. It’s a relief when the credits roll, not unlike taking your first breath of fresh air after holding it underwater.

In theaters now. 

Monica Castillo

Monica Castillo is a critic, journalist, programmer, and curator based in New York City. She is the Senior Film Programmer at the Jacob Burns Film Center and a contributor to  RogerEbert.com .

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Alice, Darling (2023)

Rated R for language and some sexual content.

Anna Kendrick as Alice

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Wunmi Mosaku as Sophie

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Alice, Darling

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Flawed but quietly powerful, Alice, Darling offers a haunting look at how difficult it can be to leave an abusive relationship -- and the value of a solid support network.

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‘Alice, Darling’ Review: That’s What Friends Are For

Anna Kendrick stars in a drama about a woman in an abusive relationship who finds refuge with two girlfriends during a getaway.

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By Manohla Dargis

When the title character in “Alice, Darling” makes her entrance, she looks the picture of the thoroughly modern, liberated, happy woman. From the outside, Alice (Anna Kendrick) seems to have it all or almost, including a career, dear friends, a nice Toronto pad and an attentive boyfriend. Look closer, though, and you can see the fissures surrounding her smile. The longer you look, the more numerous and deeper the cracks appear, making the impeccable image that Alice presents to the world seem concerningly, precariously fragile.

I’m not a Kendrick completist, but I’m always happy to see her. A pleasant, personable, ever-so-slightly off presence, she is one of those performers who looks like someone you know or would like to. She’s a fine actress with natural charm, and part of her appeal is that she excels at playing characters who seem recognizably real. Kendrick looks like a pal, like someone you went to high school with, although maybe didn’t get stoned with because she comes across as so straight — that is, if you ignore that she can also seem awfully tightly wound, like someone who needs to keep it together, like someone who’s performatively normal.

The sense that there’s more going on under Kendrick’s likable persona works well for both her character and for this movie, a liberation story that tracks Alice as she struggles to break free of her emotionally abusive lover and her paralyzing fears. Like everything else in Alice’s life, her boyfriend, Simon (Charlie Carrick), looks good from the outside. He’s a successful enough artist who’s worried about his upcoming gallery show. He’s nice looking, too, though his behavior — how he looms over Alice, how he scowls, the contempt that creeps into his voice, the insults that he rains down on her — makes him very ugly. And still, she loves him.

The story revs up when Alice takes a trip with two friends from childhood, Sophie (a necessary and strong Wunmi Mosaku) and Tess (an amusingly spiky Kaniehtiio Horn). Together, they set off to the countryside where Sophie’s parents have a waterside house. The plan is to hang out and celebrate Tess’s birthday, and the trip gives Alice an excuse to get away from Simon, who haunts both her sleep and her waking hours. Mostly, though, it allows the movie to get down to its unsurprising business: Cue the warm looks and fond memories, the booze and pinpricks of unease, some face-offs and a reckoning.

Written by Alanna Francis and directed by Mary Nighy, “Alice, Darling” has a jittery, intriguing premise that evokes classic gaslighting films. Alice’s rotten relationship and her inability to accept the truth about Simon stirs up tension and makes you feel something serious is at stake: You’re worriedly on her side from the start. Once the story moves to the country, though, it downshifts as it becomes a female friendship tale and the movie stalls. One issue is that the characters simply aren’t persuasive as a unit, and despite the performers’ efforts, their interactions never find the flow that comes with longtime intimacy, even when things have gone south. These women just don’t make any sense together.

The larger problem is that there’s not enough here — in story terms or in the filmmaking — to sustain even the movie’s 90 minutes. Sophie and Tess exchange puzzled looks amid the perfunctory staging and camerawork as Alice retreats and lashes out, including at herself. She briefly gets caught up in a search for a missing local woman, a grim subplot that’s presumably meant to serve as a cautionary tale but mostly comes across as padding. The filmmakers also fold in many flashbacks of Simon berating Alice, which make his emotional abuse incontrovertible but do little to bring her into focus. Kendrick looks suitably unhappy, and while you feel for her character, you mostly wish that this actress were in a better movie.

Alice, Darling Rated R for partner emotional abuse, self-harm and violence. Running time: 1 hour 30 minutes. In theaters.

Manohla Dargis has been the co-chief film critic of The Times since 2004. She started writing about movies professionally in 1987 while earning her M.A. in cinema studies at New York University, and her work has been anthologized in several books. More about Manohla Dargis

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Alice, Darling review – Anna Kendrick compels in chilling relationship drama

Toronto film festival: A career-best performance from the Oscar nominee anchors a smart and sensitive look at emotional abuse

“B ut he doesn’t hurt me though,” Alice insists to her two oldest friends, both staring at her with combined sadness and exhaustion. In the unsettling and unvarnished drama Alice, Darling, Alice’s boyfriend does hurt her but probably not in the ways we often hear about and definitely not in the ways we often see on screen.

Films about domestic abuse tend to rely on the aesthetic shock of seeing someone physically hurt their partner, an undeniable gut punch but one that too frequently takes precedent over the more insidious and inescapable ways of exerting control over someone. There was a tough and troubling TV one-off called I Am Nicola in 2019 that saw Vicky McClure trapped in a toxic relationship that was heralded by a domestic violence charity at the time for the importance of showing how someone can be knocked down without a single punch. There’s an equally devastating and necessary grind to Alice, Darling, a buzz-free Toronto film festival premiere that deserves to have everyone talking.

Alice is played by Anna Kendrick , an actor who doesn’t always connect with some of her overly cutesy comedic work but is exceptionally, hauntingly effective here, playing a woman frazzled by a particular brand of private anxiety. In the opening scene, she meets her two closest friends for dinner (Wunmi Mosaku and Kaniehtiio Horn), a girls’ night punctuated by the sounds of Alice receiving texts, each causing her eyes to blink a little bit faster or her fingers to tap just that bit louder. She’s in a relationship with handsome artist Simon (Charlie Carrick) and he likes to check in.

While Alanna Francis’s intelligent and uncommonly subtle script doesn’t take long to show us that Simon is coercive, it keeps us unsure over just how coercive he might be. We’re shown less of his destructive perfectionism in action and more of the impact it has on Alice – obsessively manicuring, lecturing about the dangers of sugar, pulling out increasingly large chunks of her hair – and director Mary Nighy, daughter of Bill, making her debut, chooses to show us only the briefest flashbacks to Simon at his worst, a restraint that proves horribly potent, effect prioritized over cause. Alice’s friends invite her to a cottage out of town for a birthday celebration, just the three of them, and Alice relents, telling Simon she has to go away on a work trip. At the house, her behavior gets harder to tolerate, oscillating between nervy, difficult and confrontational, the anger and frustration that’s been building up with no place to go threatening to explode.

It becomes an unintentional intervention as Alice’s relationship is suddenly dragged into conversations outside of the ones she has with herself. The nasty things she’s been conditioned to believe – that she’s selfish, that she’s unfair, that she should feel shame, that she’s just not good – combusting once air is allowed in. It’s a tough process and Francis avoids tired therapy tropes both in how she shows the jagged nature of Alice’s journey (steps forward and steps back alternating) and how the women speak to each other, with a bracing, often cruel, frankness that only the oldest of friends are allowed to have. It’s written with such depth of feeling and particularity that only experience can provide. The limited range of abuse narratives – which often feel filled in with basics learned from watching other abuse narratives – has led us to expect a type, perhaps withdrawn and lacking in confidence, usually wearing long sleeves to hide the bruises. But Alice is difficult, often incredibly annoying to be around, angry and spiky, forced to over-sexualize the way she looks rather than retreat. It’s a character written with an odd singularity we don’t usually see.

Kendrick gives a performance of equal specificity; believably, uncomfortably consumed by the sort of deep-rooted anxiety that makes others feel just as on edge. It’s deeply unpleasant to see her spiral (the grimly over-emphasized sound design of her yanking out longer pieces of hair is truly wrenching) and with the actor recently speaking out about an experience of being with a psychologically abusive boyfriend not long before she signed onto the movie, it feels as if the pain and anger come from a real place. It’s her finest performance to date and while their characters aren’t given that much beyond the basics, Mosaku and Horn are both excellent, their every line and decision made to ring true, an authentic dynamic that leads to an incredibly moving moment of extreme protection in the last act.

It’s a chilling little film, avoiding maximalism at every turn, a bold debut from Nighy (whose only real slip-up is a score that can feel dull and uninspired) and a difficult reminder of a difficult experience. The chill will linger for a while.

In the US, the domestic violence hotline is 1-800-799-SAFE (7233). In the UK, call the national domestic abuse helpline on 0808 2000 247, or visit Women’s Aid . In Australia, the national family violence counselling service is on 1800 737 732. Other international helplines may be found via www.befrienders.org .

Alice, Darling is screening at the Toronto film festival and doesn’t yet have a release date

• Toronto film festival 2022
• First look review
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‘Alice, Darling’ Review: A Nervous Anna Kendrick Plays a Woman Trapped in an Abusive Relationship

In an impressive serious turn, the typically radiant 'Pitch Perfect' star shrinks before our eyes, embodying someone so brainwashed by a controlling boyfriend that her besties are forced to intervene.

By Dennis Harvey

Dennis Harvey

Film Critic

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A few minutes into “Alice, Darling,” audiences may be reminded of how 2020’s “The Invisible Man” opened: Anna Kendrick creeps out of bed at dawn, taking pains not to wake the partner we briefly assume she’s about to flee. But whereas that Elisabeth Moss vehicle was a monster movie given heft by its abusive-boyfriend backstory, director Mary Nighy’s feature debut puts a woman’s difficult exit from a dangerous relationship front and center. This is a quietly powerful drama about psychological manipulation and damage, receiving a year-end qualifying run at the AMC Sunset 5 in West Hollywood on Dec. 30 before expanding to AMC theaters nationwide on Jan. 20. 

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Alanna Francis’ nuanced script threads in a subplot about a missing young woman in this rural area, suggesting elements of murder mystery we anticipate might lead into more genre-oriented territory. That actually proves a red herring; “Alice, Darling” may frustrate those expecting its denouement to be reached by more violent or melodramatic means than those the filmmakers devise. 

But the focus here is not so much on the object of Alice’s terror as it is the emotional bedrock of friendships Simon has (naturally) done his best to distance her from, and which may yet prove her salvation. While the word “intervention” is never spoken, that is this movie’s de facto gist: how people who really love you will take the risk of telling you who is only pretending as much, to your evident harm. Breaking a destructive codependency is so hard, sometimes others must strike the first severing blow for you.

It’s a strong role for Kendrick, whose character may seem less than fully defined, but then that’s part of the point — Alice’s boyfriend has insidiously worn away any part of her personality that doesn’t prioritize him. Kaniehtiio Horn and Wunmi Mosaku are both very good as that rare screen thing, BFF figures with palpable inner lives of their own, rather than just being satellites to the protagonist. Carrick is careful not to make Simon a conspicuous monster. To the extent that we see him, he’s charming and attractive enough of the time that we understand how Alice got sucked by degrees into a relationship operating much like a slow-acting poison. 

If the film could have used a stronger sense of catharsis at the end, it is nonetheless all to the good that Nighy and Francis exercise such judicious prior restraint. That keeps “Alice, Darling” from any sense of contrivance, the silent worry in Kendrick’s every gesture maintaining sufficient tension despite the lack of overt thriller devices. The thoughtful assembly is complemented in particular by Owen Pallett’s piano-based original score and Mike McLaughlin’s handsome but unshowy cinematography.

Reviewed online, Dec. 29, 2022. In Toronto Film Festival (Gala Presentations). MPA Rating: R. Running time: 90 MIN. 

• Production: (Canada) A Lionsgate release and presentation of a Babe Nations Films, Elevation Pictures production in association with Ontario Creates, Castelletto Films. Producers: Katie Bird Nolan, Lindsay Tapscott, Christina Piovesan, Noah Segal. Executive producers: Sam Tipper-Hale, Anna Kendrick, Laurie May, Adrian Love.
• Crew: Director: Mary Nighy. Screenplay: Alanna Francis. Camera: Mike McLaughlin. Editor: Gareth C. Scales. Music: Owen Pallett.
• With: Anna Kendrick, Kaniehtiio Horn, Charlie Carrick, Wunmi Mosaku.

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Alice, darling, common sense media reviewers.

Friendship shines in mature toxic relationship thriller.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

If you can't trust your gut, trust your friends.

Sophie and Tess are ride-or-die besties who will d

Main characters and director are all women. Alice'

A weapon is used to startle but not to harm. Viewe

Plot revolves around a couple who live together. S

Strong language includes "bulls--t," "c--t," and s

Drinking throughout, including a scene where chara

Parents need to know that Alice, Darling is a psychological thriller starring Anna Kendrick as a woman named Alice who's wrestling internally with her romantic relationship, which is taking a toll. She's on edge, self-harming when things get too stressful. The story explores coercion, emotional manipulation,…

Positive Messages

Positive role models.

Sophie and Tess are ride-or-die besties who will do anything for their childhood friend, Alice. Sophie is respectful, while Tess is blunt and an advocate for herself. They're both comfortable in their own skin, which is a strong contrast to Alice herself.

Diverse Representations

Main characters and director are all women. Alice's best friends, who are depicted positively, are Black (Wunmi Mosaku) and Indigenous (Kaniehtiio Horn) and offer body type diversity.

Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update.

Violence & Scariness

A weapon is used to startle but not to harm. Viewers are unsure of a character's safety. A subplot revolves around the search for a missing teen. Psychological abuse. A character self-harms.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Plot revolves around a couple who live together. Sex scenes include bare shoulders, thrusting, rubbing, kissing, moaning. Sexting photos of cleavage. Characters are seen showering together. Conversations about orgasms, the ethics of having sex dreams. Jokes about "d--k pics."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Strong language includes "bulls--t," "c--t," and several uses of "f--k."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Drinking throughout, including a scene where characters bond by getting drunk (they're hung over the next day). Negative character smokes. Joke about cocaine.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Alice, Darling is a psychological thriller starring Anna Kendrick as a woman named Alice who's wrestling internally with her romantic relationship, which is taking a toll. She's on edge, self-harming when things get too stressful. The story explores coercion, emotional manipulation, and control. Even more, it's about love -- and here that means the love of good friends who won't let go, even when they're being pushed away. There's a subplot about a missing girl in the vacation town that Alice and her friends are visiting. A couple of sex scenes show bare shoulders, thrusting, rubbing, kissing, and moaning. Sexual content also includes sexting photos of cleavage. Adult characters drink a lot and joke about sex, orgasms, and cocaine. A negative character smokes. Strong language includes "f--k," "c--t," and "d--k." To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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• Parents say (2)
• Kids say (1)

Based on 2 parent reviews

Alice, Darling': A Distorted Mirror to Society

What's the story.

In ALICE, DARLING, Alice's ( Anna Kendrick ) life revolves around her adoring boyfriend, Simon ( Charlie Carrick ). But during an off-the-grid girls' retreat with her two best friends, Sophie ( Wunmi Mosaku ) and Tess (Kaniehtiio Horn), Alice starts to see that her relationship may not be as perfect as she wants to believe.

Is It Any Good?

Written by Alanna Francis, this is a film that has potential to save lives -- or at least, save some from years of trauma. Because while some viewers may experience first-time feature director Mary Nighy's quiet, lakeshore cabin film as a lulling, non-thrilling thriller, others may recognize their own relationship on the screen in Alice, Darling , and it could be a five-alarm wake-up call.

Kendrick has shared that she'd recently escaped a similar situation when she decided to star in and executive-produce this drama, and her lived experience fuels a believable performance. Alice is a woman in crisis who isn't fully aware of it. She knows that Simon, a successful artist, loves her, and she loves him. Yet she also knows that something isn't right -- and it's gnawing at her. He's not physically abusive, although he does get frustrated with her -- but that's normal, right? Yet Alice's every breath is full of nervous anxiety. And every time Simon's name is mentioned, Alice's friends exchange a "look." Nighy doesn't give viewers the full scope of Simon, just glimpses, leaving viewers to wonder whether Simon actually is a bad boyfriend. Like a lake, the evidence is murky, but, as the story gets closer to the surface, things become clearer. Older teens may have enough life experience to truly understand what's going on with Alice and tuck her into a pocket of their mind, where she can stay until or unless they find themselves or a friend in similar circumstances.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about the idea of trusting your gut instinct. How do viewers see Alice's body and mind telling her something is wrong, even if she can't find the reason?

Discuss how the filmmakers choose to keep it unclear whether Simon is a bad guy or a good guy. How do you think Simon might tell this story to his friends? What does that tell you about getting just one side of any story?

Are drinking and smoking glamorized here? Are there realistic consequences? Why does that matter?

Do you consider Alice an unreliable narrator? What does that mean? What is "gaslighting," and does it apply here?

Do Alice and her friends look like friend groups you might see in real life? Why is diverse representation in the media important?

Movie Details

• In theaters : December 30, 2022
• On DVD or streaming : February 10, 2023
• Cast : Anna Kendrick , Wunmi Mosaku , Kaniehtiio Horn
• Director : Mary Nighy
• Inclusion Information : Female actors, Black actors, Indigenous actors
• Studio : Lionsgate
• Genre : Thriller
• Topics : Friendship
• Run time : 90 minutes
• MPAA rating : R
• MPAA explanation : language and some sexual content
• Last updated : August 25, 2023

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

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