Think John Hughes...gone mad.

Rating: 10/10 (15 July 2002)

It's rare these days to see a film taken to meet it's full potential as an art form. `Donnie Darko' achieves this, brilliantly. There is no way to properly categorize, or even explain this film.
It begins feeling almost slow, but the beautiful scenery, and haunting music compensate well. You are then drawn in by a family that is rarely seen on screen. Multi-dimensional, funny and caring, and above all, realistic. I think that may be the movies strongest point. Its character development is impeccable. We are not simply given stereotypical characters; the neurotic mother, the troubled teen, the bratty sister, and so forth. We are shown people living and reacting to various occurrences in a number of different ways. It hits home a little more, so to speak.
The plot takes many different twists and turns, branching off until you are involved with countless peoples lives, but miraculously, not overwhelmed by it all. A great deal of `Donnie Darko' is laden with intelligent, and quirky humour. From a debate about the mating habits of smurfs, to a mind-numbing motivational speaker, the film has some definite hilarious moments.
It also has some fairly dark moments. A key character is actually a 6-foot tall, somewhat `intimidating', bunny, named Frank. He is what, more or less, holds the movie together, forcing it along. The idea may sound silly at first, but it captures the dark-funny-bizarre tone of the film very well.
I will say, this is a movie you have to watch until the end. And it's definitely a movie that gets better and better every time you watch it. It has so many layers to it. There are a lot of things you may not pick up on, that just make the entire movie that much more incredible. And a lot of things that you don't even know are relevant until you reach the end.
See this film. It will leave you speechless, and questioning just about everything.