“Olivia Wilde’s first film as a director, coming-of-age caper Booksmart, was a total delight, so hopes are high for her return. Enter Don’t Worry Darling, but not for the reasons expected. As it turns out, it’s something of a left turn: again made in collaboration with Booksmart writer Katie Silberman, but a period piece set in a very different world from the real-life comedy of her debut.
This time, we’re in 1950s California for a tale that draws on the existential sci-fi of Inception, The Matrix, and The Truman Show (Wilde’s own references) and a few shades of The Stepford Wives (ours, based on the trailer). The hero is Alice, wife to Jack, who finds a job in the all-consuming but rather mysterious Victory Project. As Alice begins her new life with the fellow Victory employees and wives in their tight, apparently utopian, community, she begins to sense something is not quite right: everything from airplanes to eggs don’t seem real, and no one will say exactly what this Project is all about…”
