Review of Donnie Darko (2001) by Bradysmith — 09 Mar 2014

An intoxicating, engrossing, creepy, and ultimately tragic film. I felt close to the characters and cared about their dilemmas, especially Donnie's. Jake Gyllenhaal's performance is Oscar worthy, and it is the rock in which this disturbing mind bender is built upon.

The movie enthralled me, gripped my attention, and spat me out into a mangled but hypnotized mess. I did have a few problems with it though. The time travel elements aren't explained very well, which leads to some occasional headache inducing confusion.

I also found that the ending, like Roger Ebert said, lacked closure. For the most part though, this is a chilling and emotionally affecting debut that you won't be able to get out of your head for a very long time.

Going to have to see the director's cut at some point.