Unsentimental

Rating: 8/10 (14 June 2004)

One aspect of "Donnie Darko" I wish to comment on is writer/director Richard Kelly's unsentimental treatment of Donnie's mental illness. Sure the audience is led to believe Donnie's visions have some validity but they are visions of a man in a skeletal rabbit costume who impels Donnie into destructive acts. Jake Gyllenhaal appears to be channeling Jack Nicholson in "The Shining" when he is under the spell of Frank the Rabbit. When his parents (wonderfully played by Holmes Osborne and Mary McDonnell) learn the extent of his illness from Donnie's doctor, it is heartbreaking. But they handle the news, and Donnie, with aplomb.
And yet in spite of his problems, Donnie still manages to fit in high school - most of the time. He participates in class discussion, he hangs out with his friends, he teases his little sister, he even finds a girl friend. Mental illness is a lonely condition. What is Mr. Kelly's implication of the teenage condition?