Revisiting Donnie Darko

Rating: 6/10 (7 January 2014)

I liked Donnie Darko initially. It had a memorable soundtrack, dreamlike visuals, and a few strong performances. Mary McDonnell and Beth Grant stood out as Donnie's mother and Kitty Farmer, respectively, and many of the other characters, including the rest of Donnie's family, were played well. It was both nostalgic and timely in its portrayal of high school angst and oppressive, anti-intellectual conservatism given the sociopolitical climate at the time I saw it. There was a kind of a perverse satisfaction in watching Donnie rebel against Mrs. Farmer, Jim Cunningham, and the rest of their kind. Furthermore, the plot had a superficial cleverness as the chain of events unfolded to reveal a fate we already knew. I also saw Donnie Darko before I knew of its cult status, so its bizarre mix of humor and creepiness seemed novel and compelling.
After watching the original again, I still appreciate these qualities, but I'm more aware of its limitations. At times, Jake Gyllenhaal, Jena Malone, and Drew Barrymore are simply trying too hard. The quintessential valley girl acting the part of an edgy English teacher is hard to accept, while the relationship between Donnie and the new girl feels hollow. At best, she shares his flair for histrionics and an emotional honesty that would have embarrassed most of the kids I knew in high school. Donnie and Gretchen are unrealistically naïve, and while Donnie may chastise his teacher for attempting to reduce the gamut of human emotions to a simple love-fear dichotomy, he crumbles when his therapist's analysis of his inner demons is similarly reductive. The film tries to turn teen angst into some metaphysical struggle, so Donnie's quest to get into Gretchen's pants suddenly becomes faith- affirming. I wouldn't have a problem with this if the superhero angle was told with a little self-deprecating wit, but most of the film's humor is at the expense of its worst stereotypes while equally limited characters are given a weight they don't deserve.
Noah Wyle, who is otherwise credible as a high school science teacher, readily embraces the fantasy logic of Donnie's world as if Stephen Hawking made it all unequivocally believable, and I expect the audience is meant to accept the director's notion of an alternate universe with equal relish. However, the arbitrarily convoluted rules governing the plot are only interesting in their lack of clarity. I agree with fans who think it's more fun to let your imagination wander and critics who argue the film's incoherence is not an attribute. While God and fate are mentioned in passing, the film dodges the big philosophical questions to the extent that objecting to the implications of the ending becomes difficult. Regardless, nothing that transpires in the film is substantive enough for Donnie to reach any great epiphany. Instead, he is merely going through the motions like a pawn in some Rube Goldberg contrivance. So much for being a superhero.