Thursday, September 29

We decided to go to the cinema again in the afternoon when hardly anyone else goes. This time we had tickets for an upstairs screen so I used the upstairs toilets, where Yul Brynner greeted me.

We watched Don’t Worry, Darling, Olivia Wilde’s new movie, which I found a lot better than most of the over-snooty reviews suggested.

I will quote the convoluted plot synopsis in Wikipedia in full:

In 1950s America, Alice and Jack Chambers live in an idyllic neighborhood of the company town of Victory, California. Every day, the men go to work at Victory Headquarters out in the surrounding desert, while their wives (among them Bunny and Margaret) stay home to clean, relax, and prepare dinner for their husbands. The women are discouraged from asking questions about their husbands’ work and told not to venture out to Headquarters. Margaret has become an outcast after taking her son out into the desert, resulting in her son’s apparent death, although she claims that Victory took him from her as punishment. While attending a party hosted by Frank, Victory’s enigmatic founder and leader, Alice sees Margaret’s husband attempt to give her medication.

One morning, while riding the trolley across town, Alice witnesses a biplane crash out in the desert. She rushes to help and stumbles onto Headquarters, a small building covered in mirror-like windows. After touching one, she experiences surreal hallucinations before waking up back home later that night. In the following days, she experiences increasingly strange occurrences. She receives a phone call from Margaret, who claims to have seen the same thing Alice did. Alice goes to see Margaret, who slits her own throat and falls from the roof of her house. Before she can reach Margaret’s body, Alice is dragged away by men in jumpsuits.

Jack dismisses Alice’s claims and says Margaret simply fell while cleaning the windows and is recovering. This version is further corroborated by town physician Dr. Collins, who attempts to give Alice prescription drugs. Alice becomes increasingly paranoid and confused, and during a special Victory event where Frank gives Jack a special promotion, Alice has a breakdown in the bathroom and is comforted by Bunny. Alice attempts to explain everything to her, but Bunny reacts angrily, accusing Alice of being selfish.

Sometime later, Alice and Jack invite the rest of the neighborhood (except Bunny and her husband Dean) to dinner, with Frank and his wife Shelley as special guests. Frank speaks privately with Alice in the kitchen, insinuating that she is right in her suspicions. Spurred by his confession, she attempts to expose him over dinner; instead, Frank gaslights her, making her look delusional to the other guests. In the aftermath, Alice begs Jack to take them both away from Victory. Jack initially agrees, but when Alice gets in the car, he lets her be taken away by Frank’s men. Dr. Collins forces Alice to undergo electroshock therapy. During the procedure, she sees visions of herself in another life, as a present-day surgeon named Alice Warren, who lives with the unemployed Jack and struggles to make ends meet.

Alice returns to Victory and reunites with Jack, but continues to have hallucinations and flashbacks. She later remembers the whole truth: that Victory is a simulated world created by Frank, and that Jack has forced her into the simulation in the hope that they can lead a perfect life together. When Jack realizes she knows the truth, he claims he did this for her as she was miserable in her real life, but Alice is enraged that Jack took away her autonomy. Jack hugs Alice, begging her to forgive him, then attempts to strangle her. Alice kills him with a glass tumbler, destroying his consciousness in the process.

Frank is alerted to Jack’s death and sends his men to capture her. Bunny finds Alice and explains that she has always known Victory was a simulation, but chooses to stay so she can be with her children, who died in real life. She tells Alice to flee to Headquarters, which is an exit portal from the simulation. The other wives begin to realize the truth as their husbands start to panic. Alice drives Jack’s car towards Headquarters, chased by Dr. Collins and Frank’s men, who eventually crash into each other. At their house, Shelley, having had enough of Frank’s abuse, stabs him to death. Alice makes it to Headquarters, where she encounters a vision of Jack asking her to stay. Alice ignores the vision and rushes to the window just before Frank’s men reach her. The sound of Alice gasping for air is heard.

Does this plot have holes? Yes it does, but only if/when you think about it afterwards. The virtual children, for example, raise a lot of questions the plot cannot bear. I happily sat and watched it, and left feeling that I had had an entertaining time.