An impressive debut

Rating: Null/10 (16 January 2003)

One of those rare films that makes you think and feel and wonder. A tragic love story, a speculation on the nature of time and destiny, a study of madness contrasted against collective insanity; dark, funny, ambiguous and flat-out weird, this one worked for me on many levels. I admire a filmmaker who doesn't feel the need to explain everything, and this is definitely one of those movies that demands repeated viewings.
"Donnie Darko" abounds in sly references to its many inspirations, among them "Harvey" and -- in a very perverse sense -- "It's a Wonderful Life" (thanks to the missus for pointing that one out to me).
Jake Gyllenhall is by turns menacing, tender, heroic and pathetic, and the rest of the cast is more than adequate, with Patrick Swayze in a fine turn as the self-help guru whose perfectly-coifed head any right-thinking human would just love to dent with a 2-by-4.
Besides the bearable sampling of 80's music (and I'll admit I'm no great fan of the era) the score is at times faintly reminiscent of the Orff/Keetman pieces used in Terence Malick's first film, "Badlands".
The camera work is eerie, sometimes lyrical and often disturbing -- a perfect match for this story.