Review of Donnie Darko (2001) by Rendan L — 22 Mar 2015

If you are reading this for my interpretation of the movie, you've got me wrong. I see the movie in three distinct ways -- science-fictional, religious, and psychological -- and it would take too long to justify my theory and discuss specific elements in a great amount of depth. Everybody has a theory to tell, starting around when the young, psychologically disturbed teenage titular boy (Jake Gyllenhal) is hypnotically lured out of his bedroom by Frank (James Duval), the infamous bunny-costumed entity. Had Donnie not left his bed, he would have been crushed by a plane turbine that came seemingly out of nowhere. 28 days, 6 hours, 42 minutes, and 12 seconds left until the world ends, Frank says. During that time, Donnie tries to live his life as normally as he can. He lives with your average nuclear, upper-middle class family, in the late-1980s suburbs of Virginia. Donnie speaks with Frank about the fate of the world, his therapist (Katharine Ross) about psychological and religious struggles, his science teacher (Noah Wyle) about time travel and tangent universes, a motivational speaker (Patrick Swayze) about the manipulative nature of his videos, etc. Although the film is called Donnie Darko, attention is equally distributed among the wide range of characters, also including an uber-PTA/Christian health teacher/kids' dance team manager (Beth Grant), a relatively daring English teacher (Drew Barrymore), and Donnie's troubled girlfriend (Jena Malone). As the world moves closer to its impending doom, we watch each individual's lives fall into despair, or something even worse. And when the world ends, we see Donnie in his bedroom, the night of the plane turbine falling into that room. There is much to overanalyze, which is why I want to diverge from the theories. If there is one thing that I concluded, regardless of how I saw Donnie Darko, it is that many of the characters are pushed to the brink of emotional doom, in some place that is not quite reality. Although these characters may see that how they were pushed to this brink did not happen in "true reality," death is the ultimate sigh of relief from the fear of reaching that point. Much credit to director and writer Richard Kelly for leaving many interpretations open to the audience.

Despite some well-known actor names for the time, like Barrymore and Swayze, and certainly credible acting chops from everybody, Donnie Darko feels like an indie film. What puzzles me about the movie is Richard Kelly's sharp, but not quite on-target vision. I have heard that in the director's cut, Richard Kelly leans towards time travel and tangent universes to explain the phenomena of the movie. As the film was released in theaters, it's very scattershot, and Kelly had too much to say for one story. It's his debut film. But -- and mind you, this is a huge 'but' - No matter how much Kelly stuffed in this turkey, I had a great time watching the movie. Based on the script alone, Donnie Darko demands both completely masked and nakedly emotional moments from nearly every character. Every actor found those moments. My favourite one, if I had to choose, is from Donnie, the night before the world ends. (I don't want to say much more than that, lest the theorists go crazy.) There are some scenes that amplify the score/soundtrack well over non-rhythmic ambient voices, adding exquisite beauty to otherwise surreal/chilling visuals, like the time tunnel worms that squirmed out of people's bodies, Donnie's burning of a house, and the end of the world. The real chills come from moments when there is a clear disparity between the world of the movie and some other world, signified by the lack of light in the world of the movie versus the divine brightness of the other world. You can see this in Drew Barrymore's turn of the switch, or essentially any moment between Donnie and Frank. Those are great "moments," while larger scenes played like cuts from John Hughes teen comedies. Whether Donnie Darko was a dream, a vision, or in an alternate universe, ethereal is the word of the day, and that quality is enough for me to overlook the shortcomings of the science-fiction. And who cares about the shortcomings? I, for one, still like to explore the possibilities of what happened.