So last night, I saw the movie 'Don't Worry Darling', and this movie is very interesting, to say the least. I really appreciate the director, Olivia Wilde, for taking the more symbolic and thematic approach, purposely leaving a lot of questions unanswered that I really want to break down. Like Alice's hallucinations, the red plane crashing scene, head Saran wrapping scene, the whole simulation, Frank walking in on Jack and Alice during that sexual moment, those visions of the black and white dancers, and the ending with Frank being stabbed by his wife at the end of the movie.
After watching this in the theater, it seemed like a lot of people were confused, so I hope my research and thoughts are satisfying enough. I hope you enjoy it. So, to break this movie down, we're gonna use three themes:
- Suburban Perfection: We'll discuss the main message of the movie, the book that this movie is based on, the opening scene in Alice's Perfect Neighborhood.
- Progress VS Chaos: We'll discuss the wives' dance rehearsals, Frank's chaos speech, Margaret's backstory, the red plane crashing, Alice's hallucinations, and the Saran wrap scene.
- Feminist Uprising: We'll discuss the Frank walk-in sex scene, Alice and Jack's real life, the simulation, the visions of the black and white dancers, Bunny's backstory, and the ending with Frank stabbing and Alice's escape, and much more.
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Theme number one, Suburban Perfection: In order for me to clarify which theme films and subject matter this movie is trying to capture after talking about the book that this movie is inspired by. 'Don't Worry Darling' is inspired by the 1972 classic novel titled 'The Stepford Wives'. You may recognize that the book has been directly adapted into a film twice, once in 1975 and one more time recently in 2004. The story structure in this book is almost identical to the story structure in 'Don't Worry Darling'. In this novel, a woman named Joanna moves into a beautiful new suburban community and she finds out that all the women are being turned into android housewives. These robotic women are the most obedient, submissive, and agreeable suburban wives Joanna has ever met and are literally controlled by their husbands. So at first, everything seems like paradise, but soon enough, it's Joanna's mission to break out of this prison disguised as a suburban Utopia. 'Don't Worry Darling' is like a modern update of 'The Stepford Wives' with a few slight alterations to the details of the story. However, this book and this movie cover the exact same major themes: patriarchal oppression, fear of female liberation, and the idealization of the perfect suburban home and family. In the very first scene, we are introduced to a 1960s-style community with old-fashioned patriarchal values. Even on a microsymbolic level, in the very first shot, we see the women competing in order to entertain the men at the party. Of course, everything is light and in good spirits, but even in the midst of all this playfulness, one of the women is told to shut up and stop reacting when she asks one of the men to use an ashtray over her floor. And the next morning, we see these traditional gender roles continue to be embraced as all the women wave to their husbands as they leave for work. Everyone's lives are stereotypically perfect and beautiful, yet there's this uniformity and sameness to everything that you can't help but feel is creepy and uncanny. And this mysterious feeling in the air hints at the darker undercurrents of this community that are soon to be revealed.
Theme number two, Progress VS Chaos: When Alice and the housewives are all together for dance class and rehearsal, we're introduced to the core values within this community. When teaching the women, Shelley highlights how true beauty and grace come from symmetry, control, and of course, the fundamentals of Shelley's dance lessons parallel the philosophy of the entire community. This philosophy is expanded upon when we hear Frank speak at the welcoming party. During Frank's speech, he emphasizes the value of safety, uniformity, order, and tradition. But specifically, Frank makes a point that completely contradicts itself and reveals a flaw in his system. He says the enemy of progress is chaos. On the surface, this statement seems believable because chaos seems like it would disrupt any system or pathway towards progress. However, when you think about it, chaos often leads towards progress. It's the injection of little moments of chaos that lead to new discoveries, drive innovation, and even in this movie's case, spark revolution. Progress requires change, and you can't have change without a little bit of chaos. Frank is a symbol of oppressive male power and control. He believes that any change to gender roles would neutralize the progress of creating the ultimate community. The irony in his philosophy is that there will never be progress; everything will always remain old-fashioned, traditional, and suppressive. When Margaret suddenly interrupts Frank, we realize that she is the only one aware of this grim reality. And when she speaks up about this, she is immediately silenced, dismissed, and labeled unstable. This moment is, of course, part of the commentary on labeling a woman as crazy or hysterical when she is vocal about the oppression in her environment. Margaret traveled with her son out of the permitted boundaries of the community, and it's implied that she came in contact with headquarters and learned about the exit of this world. It seems Margaret was caught in the act before she could fully escape, and her son was taken away from her. Alice empathizes with Margaret's curiosity and suffering, unlike the other women, and this moment of empathy begins her path of detachment from the rest of the community and sparks her own curiosity in what's beyond the safe zone. Alice remembers the red plane that Margaret's son used to play with, so her memory of the red plane creates this dreamlike vision of a red plane crashing, and the plane crashing directly over the headquarters exit is like her subconscious guiding her towards the escape. These dreams and hallucinations from Alice always seem to symbolize her state of mind and her drive to escape the community. Many of the hallucinations are claustrophobic, ingested, and painfully restrictive, which reflects the suppressive and oppressive nature of the community. Margaret is often seen in these hallucinations because Alice knows that they are experiencing the same paranoia and new awareness. Therefore, symbolically, we often see the two of them trying to break out of these confined predicaments. And just like Margaret, when Alice is vocal about her concerns, she is silenced, dismissed, and labeled mentally unwell. But Alice continues to challenge her neighbors and, most of all, Frank. And this is where the ultimate moment of chaos is created and leads to actual progress.
Theme number three, Feminist Uprising: Throughout the final third of the film, we see Alice and Frank war against one another as they try to convince the community what they need to realize and what they should believe. I think the reason why we see Frank silently walk in and out on Alice and Jack during that sexual moment was to make Alice more unsure of whether she can depend on her own judgment and perception of reality. Frank is always manipulating the people in this community. We, as the audience and Alice, can never truly tell whether Alice was simply having a moment of paranoia or if Frank actually walked into the room. Frank's ultimate move to gain Jack's loyalty was to give him a promotion to the senior executive board. So when Alice retaliates, Jack complies with the community in having her mind adjusted and essentially in this hospital. I think the best way to describe this moment is she's being rebooted, like she's being reset to remove her awareness of the bigger picture. And at this moment, we realize how this entire world works. Basically, in the real world, Jack is unemployed and Alice works back-to-back shifts. Alice is exhausted and Jack wants a career, so Jack decides to enter into this program that he was researching while Alice was at work. It's a simulation where you inhabit an Avatar that fulfills your most ideal self. In this simulation, Jack has fuller hair, clearer skin, a better posture, and a British accent. And in this world, Alice and Jack get to live a stereotypically perfect life where Alice doesn't have to work anymore and Jack finally has a career. However, Alice was put into this simulation without any consent or awareness, and it looks like the black and white visuals of the dancers were in a projection that was part of the initial hypnosis process to enter into this simulated world. You can see the projection above them in reality in the bed when they are being simulated. And this explains why she sees these black and white dancers every time she suspects that this world isn't real. It's as if she's quickly waking up in the bed for just a moment and seeing what's above her in the real world. And we soon learn that many of the other inhabitants have entered the simulation to escape their real lives as well. Bunny always knew she was in the simulation and preferred this life over the real one. It's hinted that she's lost her children or lost a child and seems to have entered this world to have them back. This very well explains why she and Bill were so intensely loyal to Frank. And Frank seems to be the one running this entire simulation because we hear his voice when Jack is at his apartment on his computer.
So overall, while Frank is a symbol of male fear and oppression, Alice is a symbol of feminine change, revolution, progress. Alice still manages to regain awareness even after her reboot at the hospital, and her attempt to escape seems to inspire change in some of the women around her. Bunny recognizes that Alice is accepting the reality that she should have accepted, so she helps Alice to escape the simulation. And when Frank Lee suspects it, his wife Shelley stabs him and says something similar to, 'It's my turn now,' symbolizing a feminine takeover in leadership. She's realized that she's been a passenger during this long-standing manipulative form of control. I imagine she'll either shut down the simulation or turn it into something more ethical, or maybe people can visit temporarily, and the gender roles won't be so rigid. And when Alice escapes, we hear Frank's voice-over saying something along the lines of, 'Once you accept this reality, you can let go.' Alice has most certainly escaped and recaptured her career and independence. Alice has completely flipped Frank's philosophy upside down, where we and she can use his same words to address the shortcomings of our reality, let go of outside expectations, and make change for the better of the future.