Jake Gylenhall stars in this eerie psychological thriller about a paranoid schizophrenic teen who hallucinates.

Rating: 9/10 (23 April 2005)

Starring: Jake Gylenhall, Jena Malone, Drew Barrymore, Patrick Swayze The first time I watched this movie, I was anything but impressed. It made no sense to me, and it just seemed totally and utterly pointless. A complete waste of my time. But the more I thought about the movie and tried to analyze what it was really about, the more I thought I should give it another chance.
So I gave it another view today. And I've decided that I really like this movie. It's insanely messed up, but so incredibly undeniably interesting.
Donnie Darko (Gylenhall) is a boy in his late teens with some serious issues. He seems to be suffering from paranoia and schizophrenia, not to mention he is hallucinating. He keeps hearing from an imaginary friend of his, Frank. A giant rabbit with a hideously disfigured face. Frank is very creepy to look at, and looks like something you'd only see in a nightmare.
Frank starts telling Donnie to do different things, and he does them. He breaks the water main at his school and floods it. He burns down the house of some motivational speaker that has been at his school. Frank keeps telling him to do other things of the nature, and Donnie listens to him.
But the strangest thing that Frank tells Donnie is that the world is going to end in about a month. The whole movie builds to the climax when the world is supposed to end, and at that point some of the pieces of the puzzle fall into place, but there are still so many missing.
One of the most interesting things that this movie brings up is the notion of predetermination. At one point in the movie, Donnie sees everybody walking along with a trail of what appears to be water leading from their chest out into the world. As they continue moving about their day, they catch up with this predetermined trail. The paradox that Donnie grapples with is, if we know what our path is and it is predetermined, is there anything we can do to change it, or should we even try? Who knows.
This movie is a dark and haunting psychological thriller. If you like your movies to come to a certain and complete ending by the time the credits are rolling, then don't watch this movie, or you will spend hours beating your head against a wall screaming "WHY???" I know I did the first time I watched it.
Bottom Line: 3.5 out of 4 (definitely worth a look)