Donnie Darko

Rating: 8/10 (30 April 2007)

It was the many opinions of people that I heard about this film, most comments being about how it confused viewers, so naturally a second time is a must, as I was one of those confused originally as well. Basically Donnie Darko (Jarhead's Jake Gyllenhaal) is a paranoid schizophrenic who takes pills to stay on the straight and narrow, but still doesn't get on with his family, mother Rose (Independence Day's Mary McDonnell), dad Eddie (Holmes Osborne) and sisters Elizabeth (Jake's real sister, Secretary's Maggie Gyllenhaal) and Samantha (Spirited Away's Daveigh Chase). One night, he gets out of bed and goes to the front garden, where he comes face to face with a six foot creepy looking rabbit (well, a guy in a rabbit costume) called Frank, who tells him the "end of the world" is in 28 days, 6 hours, 42 minutes and 12 seconds. Moments later a plane jet crashes into his bedroom, he is lucky to be alive, and investigations go on a little while to find where it came from. When he returns to school he has hardly any real friends and does not get on with the teachers very well, including Karen Pomeroy (Drew Barrymore), as well as emotional problems professional Jim Cunningham (Patrick Swayze). He meets a new friend in sympathetic new student Gretchen Ross (Jena Malone), this offers a distraction from any problems he has, but it cannot stop him seeing Frank who gives him tasks to do. Over time Frank tells Donnie to flood the school and spray paint words on the floor, and burn down the house of Cunningham, who turns out to be a paedophile, but he also gives him ideas and questions about the possibility of time travel. He tells all about this stuff and being with Gretchen, as well as the problems with family and school, to his psychological therapist Dr. Lilian Thurman (Katharine Ross). On Halloween night, the night when the world is meant to end, Donnie delivers a letter to the seemingly senile old woman Roberta Sparrow aka Grandma Death (Patience Cleveland), and he witnesses Gretchen hit by a car by the man in the rabbit suit, Elizabeth's boyfriend Frank (Independence Day's James Duval). After shooting him dead with his Dad's stolen gun, Donnie sees a tornado approaching, but he is fine about it, and it seems to take him through a time portal taking him back to the night just before he would meet Frank. The final scene sees him fall asleep, and somehow the plane jet was brought back in time as well, and of course being in his bedroom the engine falls on Donnie killing him, like it was meant to all along, and we see Gretchen alive and well as an innocent passer by after the accident. Also starring Noah Wyle as Dr. Monnitoff, Child Play 2's Beth Grant as Kitty Farmer and young Seth Rogen as Ricky Danforth. Gyllenhaal gives a haunting performance as the very troubled teenager, and the supporting cast members, including Gyllenhaal's worthy sister, and a preachy and in a way annoying character from Swayze, and of course Frank the rabbit is popular character. There may be many questions posed by people who watch, but I would go with the theory that the night Donnie returned home after sleeping on the road, he fell asleep, and everything up to the point he is killed by the plane jet is a dream, anyway, the acting is great, the special effects are cool, and the story has some good weirdness, it is a great psychological fantasy drama. It was nominated the Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize Dramatic for director Richard Kelly. It was number 9 on Film 4's 50 Films To See Before You Die. Very good!