As I sat back in the red, cushy seats, sipping my blue raspberry Icee and munching on my overly buttered popcorn, I couldn’t help but notice all the girls sitting around me. Most were visibly intoxicated by the fine hunk on the big screen in front of us. Others were trying to actually watch the film.
Harry Styles is a man of many talents: singer, songwriter and now, actor?
Prior to the release of the film, fans quickly tuned in to watch the trailer for Styles’ first film as a leading man, but fans started to make fun of his acting. It was unfair for people on Twitter to mock Styles for his clunky and unconvincing accent in this film based on just one out-of-context clip from the trailer. After watching the film, I now see there is a reason for this. Sadly, that reason is part of a larger choppiness and unconvincingness in this cliché psychological thriller.
Given the amount of scandal surrounding “Don’t Worry Darling,” it was unavoidable for the audience to have adverse reactions to the film, but why Styles’ performance, in particular, gained so much criticism remains unknown.
In the film, Styles played Jack Chambers, a seemingly upright family man who lived in a 1950s utopia with his wife, Alice, played by Florence Pugh, as part of the Victory Project. In an accurate mid-century fashion, the married men worked on a top-secret experiment headed by Frank, played by Chris Pine, while the wives stayed at home to cook, clean and have lots of sex when their husbands returned home.
*currently squealing in the theater*
Though most of the wives appeared to be content with their lives in Victory, Alice began to notice flaws in their picture-perfect town and went on to seek answers.
Director Olivia Wilde attempts to pluck ideas from other films without acknowledging why or how they ended up working in the first place. After watching the film twice, I noticed it ruins its own finale simply by revealing it, demonstrating that serious script revision was required to fix the problems and plot holes in a phenomenally absurd twist-reveal.
Though many thought Styles failed to walk the talk, the criticism begs the question: was his acting genuinely bad? The laughter from the audience during serious moments made it seem so.
When Styles and Pugh were cast in the lead roles, there was a rush of excitement, but it quickly turned to a letdown when the reviews didn’t live up to the expectations. As entertaining as debating “Don’t Worry Darling” could be, it was difficult to determine whether Styles truly couldn’t act in the film or if he was simply unable to live up to the high expectations set for him.
Film critics were a little kinder to the singer-turned-actor’s execution. In his review of the film, Oli Welsh defended Styles by saying, “He’s not the disaster some gleefully predicted.” He added, “He has no edge to speak of, but he looks very dashing” (via Polygon). Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian had a similar reaction to Styles’ casting in the film, writing, “Styles may or may not be a talented actor; it’s hard to tell from this.”
Overall, critics appeared to agree that Styles’ portrayal of Jack Chambers was mediocre at best. However, his acting abilities were not the focus of “Don’t Worry Darling’s” negative reviews, with the script bearing the brunt of the blame for the film’s inadequacies.
Both Styles’ and Pugh’s performances are hampered by script flaws. Styles reveals his shortcomings whenever his character erupts in anger or frustration, attempting to express emotion through volume rather than physical expression. In scenes of calm, easygoing conversation, he is perfectly alright, even good. In fact, one could even make the argument that the blankness in his eyes contributes to his character’s unsettling fake identity.
When the credits started to roll, and the audience was left speechless and perplexed, I finalized my conclusion that Styles did not ruin the film. Could Wilde have found a better actor? Yes. Would the film still have flopped? Yes. The acting choices were not the film’s problem, but the overlooked plot-holes and unnecessary details were. Styles could’ve been worse for a guy who had “no idea what he was doing” when he was cast in the film. Just like Olivia Wilde has said herself during an interview on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” “Y’know, if a movie’s bad, it is the director’s fault.” And there you have it.
This is the opinion of Jessica Mingalone, a senior journalism major from Upper Saddle River, N.J. Email comments to editor@theloyolan.com. Follow and tweet comments to @LALoyolan on Twitter, and like the Loyolan on Facebook.