---

Chaotic productions don’t always kiss the movies born from them with death. But those miraculously unkissed masterpieces are relatively hard to come by. More common are films like Olivia Wilde’s by now legendarily troubled second feature Don’t Worry Darling, whose finished product may not appear tainted with disorder but which ultimately are not good enough to make all the behind-the-scenes pain and suffering seem that worth it. In a timeline where the film’s shooting went smoothly, Don’t Worry Darling would merely be a forgettable follow-up to the promise of Wilde’s spirited teen comedy Booksmart (2019). Now it has to go through the humiliations of bad publicity that on the bright side has seemed to help, not hurt, box office.

Judging from its set and costume design, and the near-constant stream of mid-20th-century pop hits emanating from radios, this stylish and for the most part competently put-together thriller is set sometime in the late 1950s. In Don’t Worry Darling, we enter an idyllic suburban enclave in the middle of a California desert called Victory, where all the housewives cheerily idle at the community pool and attend ballet classes in the afternoons while their husbands go off to work for the company after which their neighborhood is named. The people living here seem to be as happy as their homes and landscaping are beautifully manicured. 

Read the full review on 425.