Disturbing and Unsettling, But for Certain Tastes, Exquisite

Rating: 9/10 (16 September 2005)

Even if you don't like "Donnie Darko" (and I'm sure there are many people who hate it, if they've ever even seen it), you're not likely to forget it quickly. This film lingers in the mind in a very unsettling way. It left me feeling creepy, and it's actually a fairly nihilistic film, but at the same time I was weirdly exhilarated by it, mostly because it's just so damn good.
It's got an expert cast, including the Gyllenhaals (Jake and Maggie), both of whom are two of the best young actors currently working, Mary McDonnell, Patrick Swayze (yes, Patrick Swayze) and Jena Malone. All the actors are top-notch and make so much of their characters that they prevent the film from falling into too-quirky-for-its-own-good territory, a fate that befalls many "independent" films. But praise must go to the writing and directing in this regard as well. At first it may seem that events and scenes are thrown in arbitrarily just for the sake of being weird, but everything comes together logically and powerfully.
"Donnie Darko" is a movie for people who think too much. For those of us (and I include myself) who can never understand how, for example, religious people are so easily able to have a pat answer for everything that's complicated about the world in which we live, this movie gives us something to relate to. It doesn't provide answers, unfortunately, but there's something comforting about knowing other people out there are struggling with the same problems. Donnie almost can't live a functional life because of the anxiety caused by all of the unknowns about existence, and he sees the bland, self-help answers offered by so much of middle-class American society for what they are: shams to hide behind rather than to really help. He wants to be able to live without fear, without having to be convinced that there's a point to it all, but he can't, and watching him struggle with that is poignant and heart-breaking.
This is a terrific film that deserves to be seen. I haven't seen the original version, so can't make comparison to the director's cut, but I have no complaints with it as is.
Grade: A