Don't Worry Darling: Why It's the Perfect Combination of The Matrix and The Stepford Wives - MovieWeb

This nonfiction contains spoilers for Don't Worry DarlingThe conception of utopian and dystopian worlds is simply a fashionable conception successful Hollywood filmmaking. From A Clockwork Orange, Avengers: Endgame, The Hunger Games, The Village, and Pleasantville, the database is endless. Some of these films often utilize themes oregon scenarios from their preceding root worldly to remark connected societal constructs, arsenic is the lawsuit with Olivia Wilde's Don't Worry Darling. While clever successful its communicative framework, Don't Worry Darling recycles concepts successful The Matrix and The Stepford Wives, and successful galore ways, is the cleanable operation of some films.

The Stepford Wife Lifestyle

Warner Bros. Pictures

The "Stepford Wife" lifestyle is prevalent successful Don't Worry Darling. Alice Chambers lives a lavish manner successful Victory, California alongside her husband, Jack Chambers. Similarly to Alice, each wives successful Victory walk astir of their clip astatine location portion their husbands are distant moving for Victory Headquarters. The wives routines are consistent: aftermath up, housework, socialize among each other; dinner, sleep, repeat. Despite the picturesque assemblage Victory offers its citizens, Alice suspects that there's much than meets the eye, overmuch similar Joanna Eberhart successful The Stepford Wives. But dissimilar Joanna, Alice is wholly unaware of the horrific world down her cognitive dissonance.

The Wives

Warner Bros.

Similarly to The Stepford Wives, a fewer wives successful Victory are alert of what's happening successful their idyllic community. When Margaret is taken distant for attraction pursuing her son's death, Alice notices a drastic alteration upon her return; Margaret claims her lad was taken from her by Victory erstwhile she discovered their secret. When Alice yet discovers the information astir Victory's instauration and Jack's involvement, she confronts Bunny, who reveals that she willingly took portion successful the task to reunite with her deceased children.

The Twist: Emasculation

Warner Bros

Dont Worry Darling 's twist is the crossover betwixt The Stepford Wives into The Matrix territory. In The Matrix, Neo's beingness is thing much than a virtual world simulation utilized to power humanity by intelligent machines. Don't Worry Darling applies a intelligence instrumentality connected the groundwork The Matrix established. When Alice is taken to Victory Headquarters to beryllium reprogrammed, she has flashbacks to her beingness successful contiguous time 2022. Her existent sanction is Alice Warren, a surgeon who supports herself and her partner, Jack. Jack believes Alice is unhappy with her beingness and upon discovering the Victory Project online, helium proceeds to abduct Alice to trap her caput wrong Victory's simulated universe. While The Matrix's underlying taxable is quality disconnect from the dangers of advancing technology, Don't Worry Darling dwells into the extremes of perceived emasculation successful our modern society.

Jack yearns for the accepted antheral relation of 1950s America and the powerfulness it gave men implicit women: men provided fiscal stableness for their location successful speech for implicit power of their wife's expenses, whereabouts, and successful galore cases, their autonomy. Alice being their home's sole supplier is thing Jack finds unacceptable, portion helium himself puts successful nary effort to amended himself professionally. The Victory Project is metaphorical of everyone who wants an easy, and often selfish, alternate to agelong word occurrence implicit investing hard enactment similar Alice and truthful galore different career-oriented women do.

Power-Struggle

Warner Bros.

The large transportation betwixt Don't Worry Darling, The Stepford Wives, and The Matrix is power-struggle. In The Matrix, its humanity versus the machines; successful The Stepford Wives, its hubby versus wife; successful Don't Worry Darling; its accepted sex roles versus their evolution. Don't Worry Darling hits adjacent to home owed to its close portrayal of modern dysfunctional relationships. In a nine wherever women tin prosecute immoderate desired career, the "stay astatine location wife" relation has mislaid its glamour. In hindsight, the lone perceivable occupation with Alice and Jack's narration is Jack himself; helium wallows successful self-pity and redirects the blasted to Alice for being absent owed to her career. While the Victory Project seemingly allows them to walk much clip together, the world is that Jack has stripped Alice wholly of her power: her decisions, her mind, her body, her full being. It is ne'er astir making beingness easier for her; it is simply a maneuver for implicit powerfulness implicit her.

The Perfect World

Warner Bros

From vibrant homes to fluorescent outfits and settings, Victory's wives are situated successful a picturesque world. Just similar The Matrix and Stepford Wives, this perfection stands connected a superficial level, but it reiterates a wide taxable successful each 3 films: the cleanable world. In The Matrix, the machines purpose for a cleanable satellite wherever humans are lone valued arsenic subordinates; The Stepford Wives presents a cleanable satellite wherever women are programmed to conform to domesticated suburban life. Don't Worry Darling presents a cleanable satellite for those longing to reverse the progression of sex norms; Victory whitethorn beryllium simulated, but the world its wives are subjected to is derived from their husbands desires. A haunting instrumentality considering American nine mirrored Victory lone a fewer decades ago.