Top 10 of the 2000s!

Rating: 10/10 (22 January 2010)

I almost forgot about this film! Maybe because it came out at the beginning of the decade, or maybe because it doesn't have a real big name cast and is populated with a healthy assortment of newcomers, or maybe because it is perhaps one of the WEIRDEST films that I've ever seen! A lot of maybes. But there is one definite. DONNIE DARKO (2001) is an incredibly involving, often hilarious, and monumentally provocative film. I saw it not long after it came out due to it's instant cult status. I really enjoyed it the first time I saw it, but because it was the early part of the decade, I didn't figure that this would be one of the films that would end up being the BEST of the decade. Now, when I think back, this film is EASILY among my personal top 10.
DONNIE DARKO stars newcomer Jake Gyllenhaal (in a sorely underrated and brilliant performance). Gyllenhaal is the titular star and gives one of the most complex, thought-provoking performances of the decade. In retrospect, he should have been nominated for Best Actor. He carries the film as good (better I say) than many older, established actors have carried more acclaimed, awarded works in the decade. A very realistic portrayal of a "schizophrenic" personality.
Donnie is a disturbed, suburbanite high-schooler in the mid-1980s and at the film's outset, survives a plane engine crashing into his bedroom as he was out sleepwalking during one of his schizo episodes. The FAA has no idea where the plane part emanated from. A strange "bunny" named Frank acts as his guide throughout the film, telling Donnie that in 30 days, the world is going to end. During this 30 days, while in total awake mode, in addition to Frank, Donnie starts seeing these creepy watery-looking visions that come out of people. Also, there is this cooky old lady, Grandma Death, who wrote a book about time travel, that lives on the outskirts of town that is a key figure in the proceedings. Donnie investigates and finds that time travel may be a possibility.
There is actually debate about what is going on during this strange month that Donnie experiences (1) Is it an alternate universe that has opened up due to the plane engine creating and travelling through a rift in time? (2) Is it Donnie's hallucination? (3) Is it a vision that bunny Frank is showing Donnie of what "would have happened" had he not returned to his bed and gone back to sleep? I also think that the conclusions of what would have happened are ambiguous as well. Will it really have been the end of the world if Donnie hadn't done the heroic thing? Or would it just mean that the world would have branched off into an alternate reality? Or was all of this just one of Donnie's hallucinations that he had during that night?
Of course, at first viewing, I just thought the whole thing was weird. Upon repeat, thought, I understand it a lot more. Even without a total grip on the sci-fi aspects of DONNIE DARKO, the film is filled with many universal, human truths. If anything, DONNIE DARKO is a life lesson and a journey more than a sci-fi film. Donnie is so evolved from his peers (and even his parents and teachers) that he seems like an otherworldy being at times. This is part of the film's magic and charm. Donnie is almost "godlike" with a sense of himself and the world.
The excellent supporting cast includes newcomer Jena Malone as Donnie's girlfriend, Holmes Osborne and Mary McDonnell as his parents, Maggie Gyllenhall (Jake's real life sis) and Daveigh Chase as his sisters, ERs Noah Wyle (in a terrific, understated role as Donnie's science teacher), Drew Barrymore as his English teacher, veteran Katharine Ross as his pyschiatrist, Beth Grant in a wonderfully hilarious performance as Donnie's gym teacher Mrs. Farmer, and last but not least the late Patrick Swayze in a revelatory performance as motivational speaker Jim Cunningham. I also think that Grant and Swayze should have received Supporting nominations for their work in this film.
The ending of DONNIE DARKO packs one of the biggest emotional punches I've ever experienced in a film. By the time I was done watching it, I felt I was on a higher plane, right up there with Donnie Darko!