Olivia Wilde’s Don’t Worry Darling is glossy and beautiful looking but inert, would-be thriller with no stakes or any sense of threat or danger. From the very beginning, the film lets us know that something sinister is happening under the surface of this “picture-perfect” community (the only real mystery in the narrative is the specifics) blunting any sense of dread it tries to create. Every plot point is telegraphed early in each scene or section, but the film belabors these points and drags them out (as if we’ll be surprised by what’s to come) which only further reduces any tension or sense of surprise or discovery. Because tension and dread are so poorly deployed throughout the film, the final revelation lands with a shrug rather than a knowing shock of recognition. It all feels so obvious – even if the mechanism is something we couldn’t puzzle out for ourselves. Florence Pugh and Chris Pine are fantastic (as to be expected), and they’re especially electrifying the few times they share the screen together. The punishing, sun-scorched cinematography, combined with the eerie sameness of the set design, gives us the visual sense of dread and unease that the plot is unable to sustain. It’s nice to see a major Hollywood motion picture explore coercion, male fragility, and control in abusive relationships, but it would have been nice to see those themes explored in a more substantive and better constructed film.