The highly-anticipated and talked about new film from actress and director Olivia Wilde (“Booksmart”), “Don’t Worry Darling,” had its worldwide premiere at the Venice Film Festival to mixed critic and audience reviews. Fans of Wilde’s first film, Harry Styles (“Dunkirk”) and main actress Florence Pugh (“Midsommar”) will all flock as the star power is strong. However, it alone cannot save the film from being a mess.

First, the positive. The film looks very modern and pretty, and the copy-paste lifestyle of these characters is displayed well through the cinematography. Bright colors, luxury style homes, big swimming pools and a hilly desert landscape all in one. The production design is noticeably good as all the locations are really beautiful. Pugh does a fine job playing her part, and for the most part, so does Chris Pine (“Wonder Woman”). The film can be disturbing, using interestingly choreographed ballet dancers with freakish makeup and images of blood and an eerie blue eye. The music, done by John Powell (“How to Train your Dragon’’) is really good and noticeable, it helps the film keep pace and brings out the emotions to the scene.  The film’s story also has a pretty interesting concept.

And now, the negative. The interesting concept that this film has does not do anything new or profound. The same themes have been told in much better and less muddy ways. Examples include the “Stepford Wives,” of which the film takes the same themes and concept from, and “The Truman Show.” 

The writing and story feels stale and unprofound. Some of the dialogue and scenes can be laughable and not good at all. The film drags on as its pace is really slow, and gets really repetitive and It is not helped by the writing. It also does not help that the film also gets very predictable when it tries its hardest to be a shocker. There was a big disconnect between the first half and the second half, the first being a pretty good suspenseful thriller and the last half leaving too many questions unanswered.

After the critical success of “Booksmart,” Wilde’s sophomore film does not do a good job at bringing the story together. The film is like a middle-tier “Black Mirror” episode, but with a sparkling champagne glass. Pugh and Pine cannot save the acting from being kind of disappointing considering all the great projects the cast have been in. Styles in particular fails to hit the mark because his performance is not great and feels forced, as if Wilde let it slide because she wanted him in the film. Nick Kroll (“Uncle Drew”) is probably the worst overall, of the cast’s memorable members. 

Wilde herself also plays a pretty important role in the film. As much as she can direct a really good teen comedy, she is not the best actress in her sophomore film. It is acceptable but not anything to write home about. It is unfortunate that “Don’t Worry Darling” is a disappointment. The film had so much going for it and could have been great with a better written script and a better ending if the film was faster or less muddled and confused. Then just maybe the story of the unraveling of a gorgeous dystopian world would make for great film, but its misses the mark by a mile.

Image from Warner Bros. Pictures via YouTube