Dark Version of "Harvey"

Rating: Null/10 (9 July 2002)

Brilliant film that is more in the vein of "The Sixth Sense" and "Final Destination." The film is seen through the eyes of the title character, an out of place 16 year old boy who has hallucinations of a sinister looking 6 foot tall rabbit that tells him to do things such as vandalizing his high school.
The other characters seem detached and involved in their own worlds to even notice or even begin to realize the strange dream like state that Donnie Darko lives in day to day. The film wisely doesn't explain any of this and the viewer is left to wonder if Donnie is mentally ill or he actually is seeing into another dimension and is madness actually being more aware and ignorance considered the norm.
Another strange aspect of this film is that it is a "period" piece taking place in 1988. There are '80s songs on the soundtrack and a haunting version of "Mad World." Jake Glyehenhall does a great job of portraying Donnie as does the supporting cast including an uncharacteristically subdued Drew Barrymore who also executive produced the film, Patrick Swayze and Katherine Ross who still has the same screen prescence she did in her older films such as "The Graduate" and "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid."
This is one of the more original, unusual films I've seen recently. I have to admit that I was expecting this to be another slasher film like "Scream" or "I Know What You Did Last Summer" but was pleasantly surprised to see a film that chose to take a different path than most.