It's a very mad world and not necessarily in a good way

Rating: 5/10 (20 April 2014)

Donnie Darko is one of the biggest cult films of recent times and it really doesn't seem bothered about a coherent storyline. Jake Gyllenhaal plays a troubled teenager who keeps seeing a bunny man and has 28 days to save the world. Don't ask me to explain it any further. It's not meant to make sense. The film mixes horror, thriller, comedy, drama and science fiction with impressive skill and it is a well made movie. But it's not that well made. I didn't quite get the love for this movie. It's OK and nothing more in my opinion. I liked a few things about it, but it certainly wasn't enjoyable. Jake Gyllenhall gives an underrated and superb performance as the troubled titular character, while Richard Kelly does very well for a first time director and writer. The direction is quite good and the film's total refusal to stick to conventions and fit into one genre are to be admired. The film has a certain haunting quality to it, but if you think about it, all that happened in the whole story was that Donnie got crushed by a jet engine. That's it.
The main issue I have is the plot. Many think it's smart, but in my opinion, it's a lazily put together genre mish mash with loads of ambiguities to try and cover up the fact that the film really isn't very smart. It's certainly a head scratcher, but the film didn't connect on an emotional level. The teen drama has it's touching moments, but aside from that it's totally a style over substance film. Random things which don't serve any real purpose keep getting put in for no real reason, and at the time the film feels like nothing more than a 90 minute music video to the undeniably brilliant theme song, 'Mad World'. It didn't really engage me, and it lacks heart and structure. It's definitely an interesting movie more than a particularly good one, and for some reason everyone thinks its the smartest cult film ever (That would probably be The Wicker Man) instead of saying that it's the pointless enigma that it is. If you do explain the film, there really isn't an interesting answer to the puzzle box that is Donnie Darko. Many say you have to watch this twice. I don't want to see it again.
5/10