I've WATCHED 'Donnie'....but I've yet to SEE it...

Rating: Null/10 (16 December 2003)

I recently finished watching 'Donnie Darko' for the first time. As a keen movie buff, I buy movies to add to my collection every week and bought 'Donnie' several months ago. So why didn't I watch it sooner.? Who knows? I knew it wasn't a 'Blair Witch' horror movie so why the reluctance? All I DO know is that every time I went to watch it....I hesitated and then chose another film. I now know that some part of me knew that this film would definitely disturb me..and it did!
I knew immediately from the external opening shots which, although totally innocuous, exuded an air of a deep melancholy and very real claustrophobia and even menace - that I was in for an emotional ride. In some way, this opening shot put me in mind of the opening scene of 'The Shining' - an almost stomach churning sense of..can't quite put your finger on it.wrongness. This was a recurring theme throughout the movie - the cunning depiction of everyday situations which are then - ever so slyly and ever so subtly twisted until one is unsure of what you are actually seeing, hearing and more importantly - feeling.
Without spoiling the film, take the first family breakfast - we are fooled into thinking that surely this is just another middle class, suburban family with good old Christian ethics sitting down to break bread with some light banter and innocent gossip..? Surely God is in His Heaven and all is right with the world.? We soon have our assumptions on this happy little family scene slapped off our smug faces and later share the pain of that one vicious word..'bitch!'
In another seemingly innocent scene, are we watching a bunch of happy young children dancing for their proud parents...or slimy, insidious 'kiddie porn'. Is the name of the instigator of this so called Talent Show 'Cunningham' or 'Cunning Man'? The answer is actually given in the flaming 'Hell' scenes which begin to merge with the increasingly vulgar dance routine. Question: When the yellow school bus door begins to open.what did you expect..?
Richard Kelly has created a film that, over the coming years, will challenge everyone who has the courage to confront it - and I use the word 'confront' intentionally. From the most trivial of items - the horrendous 'sculpture' outside Donnie's school (and the even more unsettling addition to it later in the film), to the majestic and eerie sequence at the very end of the film, Kelly asks us to question everything. From the nature of Time, God, Man and - what I believe to be at the heart of the film - Choice. This, logically, leads to the questioning of our own choices and the consequences of them - something made so terribly and yet so hopefully clear in Donnie's own smiling, uplifting choice at the end of the film.
I now know of friends who have watched 'Donnie' over and over again...and still find things in the film that they have missed. A handy tip that they gave me - go to the official Donnie Darko website (ONLY IF YOU HAVE ALREADY SEEN THE FILM!!) and take a browse - a LOT of questions are answered there...if you make it through the maze! When I asked one friend if he had seen the film, he got it JUST right and replied `I've watched it many times..but I've yet to SEE it.'
'Donnie Darko' is one of the most challenging, intriguing and original work I have ever watched and I am going to make a point of SEEING this film - if it kills me.