Shelby Brann

Never before have I watched a movie with such great promise only to be this disappointed. Don't get me wrong - Pugh did a FANTASTIC job (not just saying that because I'm in love with her... might have something to do with it though) and Styles did... well, he was okay. To be completely honest, his lackluster command of attention onscreen that's been complained about - as his character is obviously supposed to demand respect - nearly adds something to Jack Chambers' development. Not to spoil anything, but Chambers portrayed himself as a man deserving of attention/respect for the whole plot, only to be revealed as an Internet-obsessed, basement-dwelling creep in the end. Was Styles' weak acting on purpose, to show how "wannabe" Chambers was, or was it merely an accident that the bad showmanship added something? Regardless, it's a little hysterical. Back to the movie. Lovely promise, truly. I'm obsessed with the idea of a simulated world created purely for men's amusement and contentment to be destroyed by a woman who fights on her own to defeat the suffocatingly-patriarchal society she's in while pushing back against her dull husband. But... there are mistakes everywhere. I personally would have been pleased to have seen a government conspiracy thriller surrounding misogyny, not whatever Matrix-Stepford-Wives-Gone-Girl movie THAT was. I walked in, actually, thinking that DWD was a mafia movie. Like The Firm, but about the wives of the mob? I was disappointed to find that it wasn't, proceeding to assume it was something like The Truman Show with a feminist twist. But alas! Wrong again. Confusing, vaguely upsetting, but - I'll give you this, Miss Wilde - promising. I wouldn't be surprised if the director bounced back with a much better film in a few years. But in the mean time, I'll be rolling on the floor laughing at the idea of a pop superstar/cultural icon playing a literal incel of a character.