¨28 days... 6 hours... 42 minutes... 12
seconds. That... is when the world... will end.¨
Donnie Darko is Richard Kelly`s first feature
film and considered by many to be by far his best work. This dark and
mysterious movie has reached cult status among many film lovers thanks to its
original and eerie premise. I on the other hand, just recently watched it and didn’t
enjoy the movie all that much. This isn’t my first Kelly film, since I saw The
Box a few years back and really hated that movie so I was hoping Donnie Darko
would be a lot better. It was better thanks to the performance from Jake
Gyllenhaal and the atmosphere set up by Kelly, but it still didn’t work for me
and once again I was disappointed with the ending of the film. Richard Kelly
also wrote the original screenplay for Donnie Darko and at times the movie
seemed to be heading into very interesting territories, but it just never
managed to stay that way and ended up drifting everywhere. Many things that
happened didn’t make much sense for me, but that is the way science fiction
films work, some love it while others hate it and consider the events taking
place to be impossible. For a movie dealing with time travel and such I think
Back to the Future is the one to be put on the pedestal. Too many elements in Donnie
Darko are just pointless in my opinion, but those elements are perhaps why many
people consider this film to be a masterpiece. Donnie Darko is a divisive movie
which some will love and others hate. You will just have to watch it and make
your own judgment.
In the beginning of the movie we are introduced
to a young and troubled teen named Donnie Darko (Jake Gyllenhaal) who wakes up
in the middle of nowhere one morning and drives his bike home. Donnie lives
with his parents Eddie (Holmes Osborne) and Rose (Mary McDonnell) and two
sisters Elizabeth (Maggie Gyllenhaal) and Samantha (Daveigh Chase). His family
is worried about his behavior and he is sort of the outcast in class as well.
He has therapy sessions with Dr. Lillian Thurman (Katharine Ross) and confesses
to have an imaginary friend named Frank who is dressed up as a demon faced bunny.
Frank has told Donnie that the world will end in 28 days and he also makes him
commit a series of vandal acts. Dr. Thurman is afraid that Donnie is suffering
from severe psychotic disorder. One morning a jet engine falls from the sky right
into Donnie`s room, but Donnie was saved because he had slept walk to a golf
course that night following Frank`s instructions. Donnie believes that Frank is
some sort of messenger from the future and begins to ask question to his
teachers in school about time travel. He also begins to date a new classmate
named Gretchen (Jena Malone) who has also gone through a very dark past. As the
apocalyptic date approaches, Donnie tries to find a way to change things.
This dark science fiction drama has a lot of
missing pieces that the audience is forced to put together by using their
imagination (unless you watch the director`s cut which is a lot more
explanatory). The film doesn’t seem to follow similar premises from other
movies, it is original and sometimes it feels like nothing really is happening
that is connected with other events. That is the feeling I got with Donnie
Darko, that it was a very disconnected film and hard to encapsulate at times.
It`s as if the movie doesn’t know what it really wants to be. The characters
aren`t really interesting either, the only true character that is given depth in
this film is Donnie Darko and his behavior is really bizarre at times. Gyllenhaal`s
performance was great, but that is the only thing I enjoyed about this movie.
Kelly has had a difficult time trying to follow up his work from this film
since his next two films have failed and not reached the same cult status as
this movie did. Donnie Darko could have been a masterpiece if Kelly would have
found a way to piece everything together at the end, but it left me with a sour
taste.
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