Very unusual and original film

Rating: Null/10 (10 January 2003)

First all very impressed with the pace and style of the film, very original and very hard to predict what genre of film this was. This is what got me hooked. The first few minutes of the film, you think this is going to be some corny teenage angst film or maybe some moral family drama. Yet you see very quickly this is far from a healthy normal family. The film continues like this and keeps us guessing, we are never really sure if his visions are real or in fact just figments of his imagination.
Obviously the story is really about the discussions that took place between the science teacher and Donnie. If you were able to see your destiny right in front of you could you change it. What would happen if you did as regardless of the change this would still be your destiny.

Anyway as we find out Donnie gets pieces of future events through visits from someone in a large rabbit costume and strangely he is influenced by these visions to perform various actions, which presumably take him to his eventually destiny. At the end of the film he realises this and decides that given the chance again, he would not allow the events to take place as they had and so allows his own death to take place.
Well that's my take on it. There's still some unanswered questions; the engine from the plane still comes from the future. The first scene of the film hints that maybe this has happened before and this is the second time around the loop. Also why was it the dead boy who coaxed him out of the house if indeed his destiny was to die in the accident or maybe it wasn't.
Anyway I dislike most Hollywood films, as they are so predictable, join-the-dots film making. This is very original and every time you think you've put it in the box , it breaks out of it. Wonderful realism in the school scene's, no silly over-acting, realistic reactions from pupils and teachers.
For me a genuinely original and interesting film that showed me as an old bitter, generally disappointed film watcher, that even I can get caught up in the magic once in a while.
9/10