Florence Pugh as Alice in "Don't Worry Darling."

If you’ve miraculously avoided every rumor and juicy bit of gossip surrounding this film, you will probably have an easier time liking Olivia Wilde’s sophomore feature. If you haven’t, well, it’s going to be more of a chore.

“Don’t Worry Darling” isn’t a bad movie, although you might assume it is if you believed the controversies surrounding it. But it’s also not as great as it could be.

Wilde proves again that she’s a capable director, but due to the overall pacing, along with so many missed opportunities in the story (by Katie Silberman, Carey Van Dyke and Shane Van Dyke), it can’t live up to its grand final vision. And if it weren’t for star Florence Pugh carrying the majority of the weight of the film, it would have fizzled in its earliest moments.

What is darling about it is everything at the surface level, from the outstanding cinematography from Matthew Libatique, a pitch-perfect score from Batu Sener, gorgeous production design thanks to Katie Byron and drool-worthy costumes by Arianne Phillips. Any lover of mid-century modern design will need oxygen after seeing the stunning sets and luscious threads on display.

It’s hard to ignore Pugh when she’s on-screen, so it’s a blessing that “Don’t Worry Darling” is played completely surrounding her character, Alice, a woman blissfully living the housewife-life in the planned community of Victory. There, her husband, Jack (Harry Styles), works for founder Frank (Chris Pine) doing super-secret business.

Alice and all the other wives spend their days doing basic household chores and cooking, filling the remainder of it with ballet lessons, swimming in the pool and living within the restrictions of their cultural domesticity. The men all work in that super-secret facility and return in the evening to home-cooked meals and a cocktail, along with their wives dressed radiantly for dinner. This stylish and sexy life seems to fit Alice and Jack well as they spend their moments together enthralled with and entangled in each other. But Alice quickly begins to suspect that something is amiss in Victory as her friend and neighbor Margaret (Kiki Layne) begins to question things and exhibit signs of some kind of psychosis. All is clearly not well in this idyllic desert town, and soon Alice begins to question things herself.

Because the film is focused on Alice, we don’t get a whole lot of information or connection to any of the other characters, and therefore we miss a lot of nuances beyond her journey. Pugh proves she is a force to be reckoned with and carries herself so well through the peaks and valleys of Alice’s mental and physical breaks. Beyond her, we get pretty even-keeled performances throughout, even from Pine, who usually does well in supporting roles like these, but the script really doesn’t give him much to work with.

Styles, whom we see in his first starring role to date, is fine, as is Wilde, who also takes on a supporting role as Bunny, Alice’s gossipy neighbor. This might prove she shouldn’t direct herself. We lose a lot of potential in her performance.

Interestingly, the supporting cast consists of many comedic actors such as Nick Kroll, Kate Berlant and Timothy Charles Simons, who take on the quick-paced and stylized dialogue well.

Then there’s the overall story and not-at-all surprising twist.

The ideas on display are noteworthy in terms of the semi-horrific position the characters are placed in, but those themes are never deeper than the very basic discussions that have been made for decades, and Wilde and her team never venture into deeper water. It also fails miserably at what Wilde has gone on record as calling a film about female pleasure: The sex scenes make no sense, and in terms of pleasure, Wilde’s words contradict the main point of the entire movie.

The whole film turns into more style over substance, which is surprising for a twisty psychological thriller. Save for Pugh’s stellar performance, the movie just can’t rise to meet its own expectations. Threads are abandoned or never explored, things are revealed too early or too late, and the lead-up to the twist takes too long, especially as the audience has probably already figured it out. Its main point is incredibly on the nose, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. But in this case, it just isn’t as impactful as it should be.

“Don’t Worry Darling” is a perfectly fine film. It’s wonderful to look at — save some pretty bizarre moments that work well only on the surface. But because it’s trying to open a larger discussion at the climax, it fails to reach its potential.

And unfortunately, because of all of the off-screen drama, it makes it that much harder to immerse yourself in the world presented. Everything about this movie is very pretty, but it’s not much more than eye candy.

On screens this week: Horror film “Smile” grins its way to screens along with Billy Eichner starring rom-com “Bros” and Kevin Kline and Sigourney Weaver star in “The Good House.” On Disney+ the Sanderson sisters are back in the witchy “Hocus Pocus 2,” Zac Efron takes on the “The Greatest Beer Run Ever” on Apple TV+ and catch sci-fi beauty “Vesper” on demand.

“Don’t Worry Darling”

122 minutes

Rated R for sexuality, violent content and language.

2.5 stars