Mad World

Rating: Null/10 (10 December 2002)

If you like your films to serve you up a neat, conventionally structured tale from start to finish, with no loose ends, and all questions answered, then `Donnie Darko' is not a film for you. It is an intriguing film. At times it is very touching and tender but then the film will switch and become dark and violent. It is hard to know what will happen next in `Donnie Darko'. Extremes are cleverly intertwined; suburbia, adolescence, friendship, young love, school and family life are contrasted with violence, hypocrisy, mental anguish and confusion. But are they contrasts or do they exist in unison? The layers of our ordinary everyday lives are peeled back to reveal that things are not always as they seem. The film covers many topics but searching for reasons for events in our lives and determining the true extent of our ability to affect those events, is perhaps the most significant. As such, the film could be compared to `Twelve Monkeys' and `Memento' but also films like `Magnolia' and `Shortcuts' which highlight the way all our lives are connected. `Donnie Darko' examines what lies beneath the surface of conformity and suburbia almost, but not quite, as well as David Lynch's `Blue Velvet'.
The acting is better than average, the cinematography and soundtrack are both atmospheric and subtle. I found it very hard to keep from humming `Mad World' for days afterward! `Donnie Darko' is funny and sad, clever and mysterious. Like the track `Slipping Away' from the movies soundtrack, it is both tender and disturbing. Not always an easy to follow film and certainly not a perfect film, I found it nonetheless enjoyable, haunting and perplexing. The viewer should sit back, enjoy the ride and draw your own conclusions!