The ascendancy of Florence Pugh continues with her one-two punch in 2022, Olivia Wilde's sophomore directorial feature DON'T WORRY DARLING is a bold update of the illusion of suburban bliss in the veins of THE STEPFORD WIVES (both Frank Oz's 2004 version and Wilde's film share an unexpected rebellion of a seemingly meek wife in the climax), where she plays a young wife who must find out what is wrong with her ostensibly perfect life. Then in Sebastián Lelio's THE WONDER, Pugh is an English nurse brought in to observe a fasting girl in a devout Irish family, a case of anorexia mirabilis, in the mid-19th century right after the Crimean War and the Great Famine, it commences as a contest between scientific reasoning and religious fervor, but ends up as something far more superior.

In DON'T WORRY DARLING, carefree housewife Alice (Pugh), a resident in Victory, California, a company town ensconced in the vast desert (somehow (foreshadowing the Barbieland in Greta Gerwig's BARBIE, 2023), begins to question her life on easy street. What is her husband Jack's (Styles, wonderfully serviceable) mysterious day-job? Why her friend Margaret (Layne) behaves more and more erratic after wandering into the desert with her son? What is the skinny of Victory's charismatic leader Frank (Pine, a megalomaniac certified with the God complex)? In the wake of a bizarre blackout in front of the headquarter, where all the husbands are supposed to work, Alice is growingly beset by hallucinations and paranoia, predictably accentuated by image of suffocation, drowning and compression. Something is very wrong about Victory, and a meta-verse reveal is a brilliant wrinkle to subvert audience's expectation.

However, such ingenuity doesn't reflect itself in the myth-solving procedural, DON'T WORRY DARLING is ever conventional in its plot development, every twist and turn, every emotional reaction is par for the course. For that matter, Jordan Peele's similarly conceptualized GET OUT (2017) has done a better job.

The long and the short of it, what Wilde's film tries to instruct is that a woman's autonomy can not be bought off, not least by the patriarchal paternalism. Out of his undying love for her, Jack wants to provide Alice his version of a perfect life without her consensus, cocoons her in domestic contentment, she doesn't need to worry about a thing. Such notion is rather passé and he is a pathetic do-gooder in spite of his devotion. While Wilde sufficiently flexes her muscles to imagineer a disorientating mind-scape for Alice, the script doesn't broaden its core concept of the virtual reality, it begs questions like what is the program's scope and purpose, what are its glitches, how it chooses its candidates and how can it profit. It all seems that what Frank designs is still in the stage of eating its own dog food.

Ms. Pugh is at her most riveting when she is confronted or provoked, like during the dinner scene when Alice is openly taunted by Frank, she rises to the occasion with a glint of thrill in her eyes, she slugs it out without quivering even when she knows it is a losing game. It is her moxie makes Alice a worthwhile heroine. Her character in THE WONDER couldn't be more different. Elizabeth Wright is a no-nonsense, 19th century nurse bedeviled by her own tragic past. Her flinty facade shows no cracks, even if her nightly routine reveals a monkey on her back, but that isn't in the way of her vocation. Pugh is profoundly compassionate and consummately arresting in sorting out her dilemma.

The interpersonal connection between her and Anna (Kíla Lord Cassidy, precociously riveting and affecting, a stunning discovery here), a teenage girl who hasn't eaten for four months (according to her parents), is foremost, a human bond. No matter how unsound Anna's belief is, Alice isn't there to scold her, instead, she exerts herself to rescue her from a benighted cesspool where Anna is actually the victim, which she is too young to apprehend.

Right out of the box, Lelio informs us that THE WONDER is a story that requests audience to suspend their disbelief, bookended by showing the manufactured 19th-century sets. It is based on Irish-Canadian writer Emma Donoghue's 2016 novel. It is a fiction but what the film eloquently expresses and debunks is something rather brave and subversive. The falsehood of "miraculous consecration", which is implemented by the devoted, and fostered by both the Church and the municipality (a certified "sainthood" is a grace to both). Were it not for Alice's intervention, Anna would become another pawn in the Church's propaganda mill, chances are she might enjoy her status as a living saint, but her entire existence would amount to a whopper deception and her erroneous belief would be promulgated to her devout followers, to a far more detrimental degree. Alertly, the film pulls punches in excoriating Anna's parents (played by Kíla's own mother Elaine and Byrne). It is inconceivable that any parent would willingly sacrifice a second child right after losing the first one, how delusional they could be? Does gender play a part in the decision-making? Those are the darker places THE WONDER chooses not to burrow into.

Lelio's anti-clerical slant is irrefragably divisive in the post-truth era, but what compels one to root for him is his immense humanity which exudes from his impressive track record, advocating transgender empowerment in A FANTASTIC WOMEN (2016), unpicking a Jewish lesbian relationship in DISOBEDIENCE (2012), focusing on a mature woman navigating the modern dating scene in GLORIA (2013) and its US remake GLORIA BELL (2018). He always fights the corner of the marginalized, the stigmatized and the under-represented. THE WONDER continues his relentless streak, blowing the lid off the banality of evil residing in the religious brainwashing, Lelio remains a fearless crusader for illumination and betterment in a world riddled with injustice, cynicism and plain evil.

It is remiss not to applaud Lelio's refinement in his execution of a motion picture, THE WONDER is a period drama woven in sublime texture with a vivid palette, exuding a sheen of oil paintings, to the accompaniment of long-time collaborator Matthew Herbert's soul-stirring, sometimes even ethereal electronic score, not dissimilar to his leading actress, Lelio also comes into his own robustly, may his crusade never ceases.

referential entries: Olivia Wilde’s BOOKSMART (2019, 6.8/10); Frank Oz’s THE STEPFORD WIVES (2004, 4.0/10); William Oldroyd’s LADY MACBETH (2016, 7.9/10); Lelio’s GLORA BELL (2018, 7.6/10); John Michael McDonagh’s CALVARY (2014, 6.2/10); Jordan Peele's GET OUT (2017, 7.3/10).

Title: Don’t Worry Darling

Year: 2022

Genre: Drama, Mystery, Thriller

Country: USA

Language: English

Director: Olivia Wilde

Screenwriter: Katie Silberman

Based on the story by Silberman, Carey Van Dyke and Shane Van Dyke

Music: John Powell

Cinematography: Matthew Libatique

Editor: Affonso Gonçalves

Cast:

Florence Pugh

Harry Styles

Chris Pine

Olivia Wilde

Gemma Chan

Kiki Layne

Nick Kroll

Sydney Chandler

Kate Berlant

Asif Ali

Douglas Smith

Timothy Simons

Dita von Teese

Ari’el Stachel

Rating: 6.7/10

Title: The Wonder

Year: 2022

Genre: Drama, Mystery

Country: Ireland, UK, USA

Language: English, Irish Gaelic

Director: Sebastián Lelio

Screenwriters: Alice Birch, Sebastián Lelio, Emma Donoghue

Based on the book by Emma Donoghue

Music: Matthew Herbert

Cinematography: Ari Wegner

Editor: Kristina Hetherington

Cast:

Florence Pugh

Kila Lord Cassidy

Tom Burke

Niamh Algar

Elaine Cassidy

Caolán Byrne

Toby Jones

Ciarán Hinds

Dermot Crowley

Josie Walker

Brían F. O’Byrne

David Wilmot

Ruth Bradley

Rating: 7.8/10