Whatever its about my heads spinning

Rating: 7/10 (25 January 2005)

When you've just finished studying a controversial English book in your local English class, the last thing you want to see is a giant demonic bunny rabbit who just happens to tell you when the world is going to end. For schizophrenic high school student Donnie Darko this is everyday life. After cheating death through his weird experience Donnie seeks answers to the riddle that is 28 days, 6 hours, 42 minutes and 12 seconds. Richard Kelly's debut film is certainly a thought provoking one with as many, if not more twists then Thorpe parks record-breaking roller-coaster Colossus.
The genre of the film is the first thing that gets your mind going, it has elements to a high school teen movie, a sci-fi, a fantasy, a romance, a horror or a thriller. Many define it as an Indie art house film but for the purpose of keeping it basic this is predominately a Fantasy Sci-fi Thriller, which in itself still doesn't tell you much His casting of Gyllenhaal as Darko was certainly a good one as he carries the film fairly well, showing why he was seen as the natural replacement to Tobey Maguire as Spiderman. What it is about him is that he has this innocent look about him, which means when he turns menacing he fits the eerie bill perfectly. The rest of the cast turn in recommendable turns too. Most of them are very low key, as you would expect in an art house type low budget film like this one. But the two that aren't, in the shape of Patrick Swayze (returning from oblivion) as a motivational speaker and Drew Barrymore as an unconventional poetry teacher, are seemingly wasted in roles that aren't really of any necessity to the already convoluted plot line.
The bunny gives the film an Alice in wonderland feel, as Darko seems to follow it down a rabbit hole. Its eerie presence isn't as much scary as it is just weird, but it really adds to the intriguing storyline that follows its appearance. The storyline stays fascinating because at no one point up to the end does it become clear where or Kelly is actually going or like the Wachowski's in the Matrix Trilogy whether he knows where he is going. He explores many things such as Time travel and Schizophrenia, even the sexual nature of the Smurfs! But in between throws in lots of red herrings, which at the end means the film, is simply open for interpretation.
The special effects the film produces are nothing special in the way that they seem very MTV Pop video type. The wormhole effects and the snake thing at the end are probably the only ones of any real note, but then from a film made on just 270,000 dollars you can't expect to get effects of the standard of the Titanic.
Much of the story structure seems to hinge on Darko's sanity, as his Schizophrenia worsens his acts get more dangerous and more eccentric. On the other hand he seems to stand on the edge of a miraculous discovery. His one anchor for sanity comes in Joanie, the love interest. It is when she is absent in Darko's life whether she is asleep or unconscious that his behaviour deteriorates into something worse.
Unfortunately Kelly's eccentric in plot line is one of the things that let the film down at times. Towards the end, he throws so much in that the viewer is overloaded. What he does well is he doesn't talk down to the viewer almost expecting the viewer to know what he's talking about often offering little explanation to what is happening before your eyes. But it is the final overload of information, that for many will let the film down but is also the kind of ending that earns you a cult status, as many struggle to figure it out. Without a doubt Kelly is an up and coming director who has you on the edge of your seat in this multi genre film which in the end I can conclude is an unsetting, original film that is undoubtedly well worth a look if you haven't got much on.