Mentally and Philosophically Intriguing

Rating: 9/10 (21 February 2005)

Donnie Darco has unbelievable emotion range and at the same time is an intensely thought provoking movie. I am currently reading a book called "A Universe In A Nutshell" and my favorite movie ever made is "Fight Club" so you might be able to tell right away (if you have seen this film) that I have thoroughly enjoyed it.
The part when he is discussing time travel with his science teacher and rebelliously lashes out at that conservative town teacher (who is quite hysterical, adding to the elusive deranged theme of the movie) who tries to tell Donnie to sum up life between the categories of 'fear' and 'love', are two of the best scenes.
Since I have been reading a lot lately and currently have some supplement knowledge about quantom theory and time travel it somewhat helped me decipher the movie to find out if it was even more than an artistic creation. Donnie Darco cinematic ally is filmed showing his alternate universe if a fictional rabbit with a bunny suit had got him out of the house before the jet engine had crushed Donnie Darco. As you see the movie unfold you notice how this tangent universe (or more simply, altered destiny) has shaped this new personality Darco exhibits. This is where I think the brilliance of the movie is based on two factors, all the relevant emotions subtly exchanged in the movie and more implicit were in the editing, directing, and screenplay that added an extra element of complication in the movie by giving the audience information about this tangent universe, majority of the movie emphasizing a great experience for the moviegoers.
The energy coming out of your chest outlying your expected path in time was a great and nicely visually represented helping me to grasp quantum theory, it shows how empty space really isn't empty but is very dynamic and that spacetime is indeed curved (time is constant but also variable, which shows how you can continue on spacetime through a tangent and ultimately rejoin spacetime at a later personal time...which may or may not have been one of the hidden suspenses in the movie).
One theorized way to find out if there is a fourth-dimension is to spatially subtract finite empty matter, invalid space, relevant to valid space. This is the tip of Hawking's mathematical depth.
I was also thinking that after he was talking to the scientist about spacetime that he would perhaps find a way to travel to the speed of light to change his destiny.
Before I want to get to far ahead of myself, this is what's going on. This movie is the only movie that you can say contains everything you could possibly need in a movie. Science, entertainment, visualization, suspense. And if I'm not mistaken, a truly grand decision by the crew of this movie who knew when they made it that it could entertain on all levels and also incorporate very creative artistic talent.
***Spoilers***
As far as the ending goes, I infer that the ending basically shows Donnie Darko going back in time. And embracing his original fate or dying in order to save Gretchen (because she would have never met him in the first place and got killed) and also to surrender because of his basic knowledge (from Frank) about the world that shows him that people die alone and that he'd rather just accept his original fate then go on knowing he could have prevent Gretchen's death and have the knowledge of such despairs in the world. Donnie took these thoughts well and in a comedic sense said "f-this" and just went on and died the way it was intended for him.
9/10