New Wave Darko lives in a mad world

Rating: Null/10 (12 July 2003)

*SPOILER ALERT* *SPOILER ALERT*
Donnie Darko is a sullen, anti-social teenager. He's in therapy and on medication. He is plagued with visions of death, doomsday predictions and giant talking rabbits. Just like most kids from the 80's. As the New Wave soundtrack blasts in our ears, Darko tries to make sense of it all. Is he a paranoid schizophrenic? Is he a visionary? Will he build a Delorean and go back to the future? Is he just plain nuts?
"Donnie Darko" is very interesting. I think you would have to be a child of the 80's, (which I am), to fully appreciate it. Was the director Donnie Darko back in his teenage years? Did he know a Donnie Darko? This story feels immensely personal. Was he a confused teenager too? It's got Tears for Fears on the soundtrack and "Evil Dead" showing in the movie theater. Time Travel is an important element of this flick. I felt like I had tripped through a wormhole back to private school with Darko.
"Donnie Darko" is, for the most part, a mystery. Why is Darko being sent all these orders from the Fuzzy Bunny man? Who is Scary Cottontail? What the heck does it all mean? Well, here are my thoughts:
*SPOILER ON ENDING* *DO NOT READ ANY MORE IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THIS MOVIE*
*LAST CHANCE TO STOP READING*
Still with me? OK. Darko is a screwed up teenager. A bright teenager but screwed up. The smart ones know too much for their own good. They get sad pretty easily since they can't see the world as simply as others. "Fear or Love"? So throughout the flick, Darko sees a guy in a rabbit suit telling him to do violently anti-social things. So we start to write these visions off as delusions from a warped mind. But then the concept of time travel is introduced. Could the rabbit be from Darko's future? Is he trying to help him or hurt him? This is (obviously) the mystery to solve.
Darko thinks he knows the exact time he is going to die. The rabbit told him so. Darko is either insane or knows a smart bunny. When Darko has a life or death choice to make, he chooses life. Not his life but everyone else's. When he makes his final choice and jumps through his wormhole, he lands back in his bedroom. He's seen smiling and laughing in his bed. This was the first sign of happiness (relief?) Darko had shown during the entire movie. Maybe Darko wasn't so dark after all. He did some bad bunny things but at the end of his road, he made the right decision.
I can't recall a movie in which a song so perfectly conveyed the meaning of a scene. The song "Mad World" plays over the end of the movie. It explains it all. It's Darko's theme song:
"And I find it kind of funny,
I find it kind of sad,
The dreams in which I'm dying
are the best I've ever had."