So much to think about.

Rating: 9/10 (8 October 2002)

Donnie Darko is a tough movie to describe without giving too many details away. I ended up seeing it based on the recommendation of a friend, who also did not set it up very much, but rather said I should just give it a try. I'm very glad that I did! It's one of the better movies I've seen in a long time.
Ostensibly, it's about a kid, Donnie, in his mid-teens, living in a generic 80s suburbia, with some emotional/psychological issues that manifest themselves as the collective guide through this bizarre unfolding of events in the movie.
The feel of the whole movie is very surreal and trippy, and yet accessible at the same time. It keeps you wrapping your head around the issues facing poor Donnie, and much like The Sixth Sense, you'll want to go back and watch it again to catch the little things you missed before, do some consistency checking, and wrap your head around the whole thing a little more. It seems like there are key elements left up to the viewer to decide about the details of the outcome, but the more I chewed over it, the more I felt like the conclusions were certain, and I just had to put all of the pieces together as evidence. In that respect, I like it better than The Sixth Sense. The latter has an explanation for everything at the end, but Donnie Darko merely presents a host of information throughout the movie--much of it subtle and low-key, yet important nonetheless--and lets the viewer figure out the details of how it all connects together.
What puts this movie over the top for me, however, is that in addition to the twisted, surreal main story line, there is no small amount of social commentary on the sterility of suburbia, and the disenfranchisement of kids in the face of teachers and parents that have in many ways lost more of their sense of reality than Donnie has. There are a host of brainwashed adults and disconnected parents that make you wonder how any of these kids are heading in the right direction; and indeed, many of them are not. Of course, that just adds a dynamic backdrop of characters to the detailed interplay of the story, which serves to make this movie even more wonderful. This is the kind of movie where every action and detail tends to have significance, and the complexity of the characters interwoven into the bizarre plot makes you respect the attention to detail and consistency that much more.
When I first saw Donnie Darko, I was intrigued, and yet willing to believe that the setup was a bit haphazard. When I saw it again, I realized just how meticulously the movie had been put together, in every aspect, and it gave me a powerful respect for this film. 9/10 stars from me.