Dark, Darker, Darko - Everybody dies alone

Rating: 8/10 (30 January 2005)

Or so we may think. Donnie is a fairly typical teen, in a not so typical suburb full of rich people and a uniform prep school. The place is fictitious, but the story seems strangely real and set in the late 80's and seems to make very good use with some of the better songs of the time.
I typically like to go into a movie with a little knowledge as possible. I really dislike movies that have advertised all their good scenes and lines ad-nauseum to the point where you here it in the actual movie for the first time, you feel highly uninspired.
*** WARNING - Possible spoilers ahead - WARNING ***
* YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED *
So really like the fact I never really heard about Donnie Darko and had no misfortune to get too much information on this excellent film. I thinks this film's strengths are its weakness and its weakness are some of its strengths. If this does not make any sense, then maybe this movie is not for you. If you like a mystery ... then you may love this one, but it may not have any conclusion or anything you like.
I have heard a lot of comparisons of this movie since I saw it and I am puzzled as to why none of them refer to Jacob's ladder or even 2001, or more specifically Hal 9000 in 2001 A Space Oddessy. There are a lot of similarities in both. The Bunny Rabbit (or someone in a deaths-head rabbit costume) is Hal 9000, but with a few twists. Hal had power over the people on the space ship. The astronauts were afraid of Hal and rightly so. The rabbit is also something to be feared but it also seemed to help Donnie at one point. Donnie was bound to the rabbit and he did not know why. Donnie soon finds he has powers over other people and events. He starts to speak his mind, but he knows he is going insane, if not already insane. His shrink wants to increase his medication and his parents are worried, but want to do whatever necessary to help their son. ... and the old lady that stands in the road looking for mail is actually an author of some note. Donnie tries to find answers with the teachers and as good as some of them are, not all are able to help, because they are not allowed to talk about god. Then things start to get really strange and some overly stupid self help guru gets a wakeup call... and then the world ends as the bunny indicated.
I thought it was a nice Halloween. I have no idea if I just gave the movie away or not, because even if I did, I did not - but you can make that call if you wish.
I think the movie could have done more to stress the end of the world - or not. This was not clear, as many things are not so clear in life. Was the old woman caught in a similar situation and simply beat down the point where she stands in the street and checks her mail box 16 hours a day? What did she really write and why? Why did the movie skip over so many things so quickly. Clearly Donnie's world was about to end, or did he get a choice. What really was that choice and why did all those things happen when he went to the dead lady's house? Was she really dead - of course not, but maybe she was dead inside.
As you can imagine death plays a heavy roll - similar to what happened in Jacob's Ladder, but with many significant differences. These differences are best found when watching the movies.
I've heard there might be a directors cut for Donnie Darko - I really hope so, because while this was was very good, the Directors Cut (DC) has the potential to be killer :-)
I would give the story a 9 (because it could probably have been told better and well its not perfect - or is it?) I would give the acting a 10 (because I could find no flaws on my first viewing - though some rolls are fairly light) I would give the movie a 7 for everything else (short scenes, building was a bit weak, but then it added to the surprise). I would give it an overall rating of 8.4, so I have to round to 8.0 for the vote.
I'm thinking the DC could rate a 9 or maybe even a 9.5 in my book, but that is a tall order. The standard DVD did contain most of the deleted scenes, but they were super low res and there was no option to view them 'inmovie'. For a low budget Jr. Director's flick, this did have good effects. For a Post 9/11 film (made before 9/11) this had some odd reminders. The fine line here is not revealing too much and not skipping over certain details. What did that old lady tell Donnie? :-)
It's been some time since I've seen the Ladder, so I will probably pick that one up and watch it again and compare.