Director's Cut is amazing

Rating: 10/10 (12 September 2004)

I've loved this film from the time I first rented it a couple of years ago--so much so, in fact, that I'd seen it six times. Yet, it still seemed a flawed masterpiece. The DVD of the original version revealed that there were twenty deleted scenes--simply put, the movie was terribly over-edited. Sure, it was enigmatic, but it felt like a cheat in that so much vital information was withheld from the viewers. Yet, in spite of that, there was such grace, charm, suspense, and wonder that it drew me deeply in to this stunningly original work. . .
But even in spite of six previous viewings, and listening to the director's explanation of the deleted scenes, nothing prepared me for the power of the director's cut, which is so well done, all I can say is you haven't seen Donnie Darko until you've seen the director's cut! Simply put, it's flawless. Acting, pacing, plot, characters, suspense, comic relief, and even sound effects are perfect.
Jake Gyllenhaal is perfect as a dark kind of holy fool, a mentally troubled teen who is tormented by seeing a different world than what his peers experience. (And if you don't know by now, a key figure in that world is a gigantic, Satanic-looking rabbit who calmly prophesies the end of the world in 28 days.) All of the other performances are also superb, most notably those of his parents.
Besides incorporating some of the deleted scenes (though not all), director Kelly much more closely integrates R. Sparrow's book into the story; scene changes become chapters unfolding as the countdown begins to the end of the world.
If you haven't seen it yet, RUSH to where the director's cut is playing. And if it's not in your area, mark your calendars to begin checking on when the director's version comes to DVD.