Run Rabbit Run

Rating: 9/10 (21 March 2002)

Donnie Darko is a (gulp) great film. I hate to admit it but after the film was over and my life started again I couldn't help but to continue to have thoughts and feelings for all the characters. It's wise in how it treats all the people like people in the real world stuck in a movie, it helps us to really understand why these people do some of the things they do. However I grow tired of the whole MEANING OF thing, and the time travel thing was a leap, but it works. In order to enjoy this film you have to accept that there is a God and path you are meant to take, or like me, you have to let the fantasy of the movie take you in and let go of all rules. Most films won't let me forget reality because they aren't very good, this is a good film so I can. My problem and the ONLY thing in the film that keeps poking me is, well DONNIE. Donnie is a person who questions everything he's being taught and told. He reviews ANYTHING that is said to him, the movie goes so far as to have Donnie end a debate about the Smurfs. This made me wonder WHY in the middle of the movies, when Donnie could see his "path" before he took it, why didn't he try to avoid it and go in the opposite direction. They almost answer this question but the teacher stops the conversation when he says,"I can't talk about this anymore, I could lose my job." Which was true because another teacher loses her job due to her opened ways to the students.
Donnie Darko wasn't the smartest film I've seen, but it's obvious it was VERY well directed, perhaps a little short and under explained at parts, great music, and amazing actors. I felt energy from a Todd Solodize or Paul Thomas Anderson film. Donnie Darko is a great film, that's really fun to watch, and maybe tries to be more meaningful and self-impressed than it actually is.
DONNIE DARKO ***1/2 (out of ****)