‘Don’t worry honey’ is probably the most talked about film at the Venice Film Festival. Olivia Wilde’s second film premiered out of competition and already came with statements surrounding Shia LaBeouf’s departure from the project. Wilde said that she was fired, he that he resigned. Added to this were rumors of tensions between Florence Pugh, the protagonist, and Wilde, as well as other difficulties between Harry Styles (who replaced LaBeuf) and Chris Pine, the antagonist. According to interpretations of the premiere, Styles, Wilde’s current partner, spat on Pine. That he received attention, he received. This is added to a cryptic marketing campaign that is about to prove whether it has been effective for the production of around 30 million dollars, a project that comes from “The Black List” (the list with the scripts that the industry considers as the best and yet to be filmed), from a director whose debut earned her the Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature (and who has four other projects lined up) and an all-star cast.
The promotion for “Don’t worry, darling” announces it as a mystery film, a thriller, although its image is reminiscent of “The Stepford Wives” and the materials suggest something different. The synopsis reads: “A 1950s housewife living with her husband in a utopian experimental community begins to worry that her glamorous company may be hiding disturbing secrets.” Through the trailer and the posters, advertising has highlighted the aspects of romance, sensuality and sexuality with elements that show that there is something “strange” or “out of place” within all the perfection that can be seen.
It seems then that the story of Alice, the protagonist, follows the “rabbit”, like that of the most famous Alice, through different holes. The first impressions that remained in the minds of the public are those of a sexual nature between the characters of Pugh and Styles (just the type of scenes for which there were differences with LaBeuf and that finally led to her departure). So, indirectly there is a certain impression that it is a somewhat erotic film. Then the confusion came when her true agenda began to be discussed: a metaphor for marriage, the power of men over women, an allegory for freedom and female empowerment. The contradictions between the positions are obvious.
“There is no bad publicity” goes the saying. The conversation about “Don’t worry honey” has been around the film, its actors and differences, the tensions during filming, but not the film itself. Critics who have seen and reviewed it give it a 38% on the meta site Rotten Tomatoes with a consensus that reads: “Despite an intriguing array of talent on both sides of the camera, Don’t Worry Darling is a repeat in its confusing majority of all-too-familiar topics.” Of the cast, the work of Pugh and Pine has been highlighted.
Whether for its publicity or scandals, “Don’t worry honey” is in the spotlight. There is expectation. With this, the currency is in the air. It will be, in the end, word of mouth that will make people go see it or not, otherwise it will remain “much ado about nothing”. Do not worry honey? Who knows, maybe “Don’t worry honey” should be there when the public might think that he has been given a pig in a poke.
