Great cast, brilliant idea.... awful film 1/10

Rating: 1/10 (7 October 2004)

OK firstly i think if this director makes another film he first needs to do some research into the topic he is addressing. As a former paranoid schizophrenic myself I consider myself one of the few people who understand the harsh reality of the condition. Therefore to see it utterly taken apart for the sake of a film, as in this case makes me extremely offended. This is a film which promised everything but gave none of it with a predictable storyline from the start. The idea of time travel aided by an imaginary creation is an amiable one and could have been developed into an awesome film, however this is not the case with Donnie Darko. I rented this film with anticipation, hoping it to be a story of a teenagers struggle for sanity in the confusing modern world, with all the heavy contemporary pressures upon his shoulders. However Donnie Darko turned out to be a crude manipulation of schizophrenia in order to make a film which essentially had more to do with time travel. I found this very frustrating! I am not a script writer and am not going to suggest how amendments could be made. But the most important thing for me was, for this film to carry the international weight that it does and to be held in such high regard simply demonstrates the public ignorance and naivety which is endemic in our modern society; concerning disease, both physical and mental. Though my word holds no real weight in my outcry i felt it essential to make my thoughts on the matter known, as it is one which, for me was a very real and traumatic experience, one that i have spent the last years of my life trying to recover from. I hope i have not offended the vast masses of Donnie Darko fans, by all means watch the film and enjoy it, i am simply highlighting the appalling manipulation of a serious medical condition to make a blockbuster. Thank you, David Rawlings