The bottom line.

Rating: 5/10 (27 March 2008)

I watched this movie after having seen many comments about how great it was. Fortunately I never read any of the spoilers. In fact, I never even read a synopsis of the plot. But, unfortunately I had great expectations for this film. Saddly, the movie did not live up to them. Most of the reviewers who gave this 5 or less stars I generally agree with on their comments.
The bottom line is this.
*Spoiler coming*.
This is about a teen who has psychological problems. There's also a half-baked, pseudo-science fiction theme about time travel here. The night that the jet engine falls on the Darko house, we are led to believe that Donnie gets out of bed to follow a voice which turns out to be Frank the rabbit. From that point on the movie unfolds through the numerous events until Donnie is given a choice to pass through a wormhole back in time to before his girlfriend gets killed. He does so and ends up back in his bed the very night the engine falls on him. Well, it's quite simple to explain that everything that happens to Donnie before his death is all in his mind. The time travel is related to the fact that right before his death, his life flashes before his eyes, but it's not his past life, it's his future if he were to get up out of that bed before his fated death. He sees all these consequential events happen, lives them in his mind for a supposed 28 days. But in fact, it all happens within minutes. He decides in the end not to get out of his bed knowing the fate that awaits him, and he is free from himself. The movie is a whole illusion playing out inside Donnie's mind.