"Cellar Door"

Rating: 10/10 (3 July 2008)

Uh, where do I begin? This movie has perhaps leaded me towards insanity! Like a few other comments I have read, I agree completely that this movie does not have only one way to be interpreted. I literally have thought about this movie for hours going over each detail and scenario that it could follow. If only I could ask the director himself, Richard Kelly, what exactly he is trying to get across to everyone (from his point of view). I have come up with 3 possibilities that are , I admit, very debatable (and hopefully will be retorted to me!)... (1): This movie is about how Donnie is a substitute of God, especially since the subject of God and atheism and agnosticism were brought up on several accounts. And since Donnie is God-like, he is therefore some type of superhero that ultimately saves the world from Frank's predetermined "Oblivion Date" by sacrificing himself through time travel. He realizes that with his existence, he is only doing damage, and well, death, to the ones he loves. This view, however, of course overlooks details that would possibly sway someone to think otherwise, which brings me to (2): Donnie is the opposite of God, and is perchance "Satan-derived" simply because we see him perform mischievous acts throughout the movie. Frank seems to be leading Donnie through all of this, and Frank is perceived to the audience to be evil because he is dressed creepily and speaks of death. But isn't Donnie producing these hallucinations in the first place? Which would make him some sort of root of the evil? Even though he's unaware of what exactly is happening to himself  at least until the end, when he decides to sacrifice himself? Yet if he's evil, why would he do such good in such a selfless act?... (3): Is it all a dream? Since Donnie does go back in time and in a sense "erases" what we, the audience, have seen for the past 132 minutes, the story is just a possibility, something that maybe has happened and no one knows about it because of what Donnie in the end did. Kelly is proposing that time travel is perhaps possible, and therefore he opens a doorway to another dimension where the phrase "What If?" becomes monotonous. That, people, defines the genre: fantasy. And the word Destiny comes to mind.
All in all, I love the movie. It was a "Cellar Door." I forced half of my friends to watch it! And thereafter we had a minimum of an hour of discussion on what we thought this movie meant! All of the details, themes, motifs, ..everything. And I still see much more every time I watch it.
..And if someone is uncomfortable with me sectioning all of the little details together to make "theories" of what the hell this movie is about, you can always just look at the movie altogether, messy and uncoordinated, but somehow alluring and thought-provoking, a movie that you probably will not forget. And that, movie buffs, would take days to ponder over. When do we start!?