Time travel meets teenage angst

Rating: 9/10 (15 March 2006)

This great film nicely tackles the old chestnut of time travel by slowly revealing details throughout the film, but it is not until you get to the end that you realise what's going on, and then you need to watch it all over again to check it out. No wonder it bombed at the box office, but took off finally in DVD format... and now is number 95 in the IDMB all time hit list. The new double DVD directors cut is the business, including an amazing art show based on the movie, and loads of extras.
Richard Kelly (director/screen writer/artist) covers all the bases of teenage angst; teachers, parents, gurus, relationships, fat kids, bullies, religion (it's no surprise that the highest ratings for this film come from teenage girls). But in the end its a love story, and love conquers all.
This is one of those films that demands several viewings, and much discussion. Surely it will be studied at film school ("Discuss the significance of rabbits"). Perhaps it was Richard Kelly's intention, having just left University of Southern California studying film only 3 years before shooting DD. In the director's over-dub, Richard Kelly states that once he decided on the end and beginning of the main plot, he then just filled the rest of the film with clues... and yes, they are there, waiting to be deconstructed by film buffs the world over.
In HARVEY, the 1950's classic where James Stewart talks to an imaginary 6'7" rabbit, the advantages of his company are elaborated by Stewart... "Oh, yes! Yes. Yes - these things always work out just the way Harvey says they will. He is very, very versatile. Did I tell you he could stop clocks? Well, you've heard the expression 'His face would stop a clock'? Well, Harvey - can look at your clock and stop it. And you can go anywhere you like - with anyone you like - and stay as long as you like -- and when you get back -- not one minute will have ticked by".... coincidence? I think not. If I understand Richard Kelly, then he will love the connection even if he didn't plan it (but a film graduate probably had to study how Stewart made acting to an imaginary character seem natural).
And of course the music is fantastic. The film made Gary Jules famous for his cover of the Tears for Fears classic "It's a mad world" .