Donnie Darko

Rating: 7/10 (6 January 2011)

Some will find it intriguing through its title character and his charisma, others will find it to be bizarre, me I found it to be both in a good way. It's conclusion will shock, and baffle most, leaving with the question of what happened. Donnie Darko (Gyllenhaal) is young high school student of Middlesex, with a troubled past, requiring him to take medication, and see a therapist on a weekly basis. In the wake of his most recent sleep walking incident, he has visions of an evil rabbit named Frank, who proclaims that the end of the world is coming within 4 weeks. I know, not many people will think of a rabbit as the so called evil that'll haunt a person. Usually dudes as disturbed as Donnie will imagine more crazy stuff, like ghosts, and even demons. Donnie's life is sparred in the wake of mysterious jet engine that fell into his room, as he yet again sleepwalked. You'll think, lucky bastard dodged a bullet, well trust me he won't be so lucky in the end. Among the 28 days that Donnie waits for the end, the life he lives gives viewers quite a view. Many things transpire in his school life that show viewers the kind of person Donnie is, and what could be his drive towards his death. His anger is manifested through his intelligence, his low opinion of fakers and hypocrites, as well those who are simple minded. Jim Cunningham (Swayze) a self help film promoter of "Conquering Fear" proves to be another faker, with dark secrets of his own to force Donnie hands. The Middle Sex High school gym teacher Mrs. Farmer (Grant) a simple minded honest to God and clearly a weirdo, pushes Donnie to insult her lack of education. Basically Donnie's anger is expressed further as he sees the worlds around him to be the unlikable way lives it. In fact there are few people Donnie actually respects. Donnie's supposed hallucinations grow into a further obsession with the concept of time travel. Reading up on the subject, viewers will never fully understand what he hopes to gain through the knowledge of time travel. Maybe he might use it on the last day to change the past. Nobody knows for what reason. It all becomes clear as the 30th of October, as his girlfriend dies, and the end is reverted back to the beginning, revealing that he'd already been reading the very exact book on time travel. His near death experience is repeated, only with the slight twist of his own death to top off the film's ending. I can't say the film's direction was very clear, despite being very amusing through the personal views and interpretations made by Gyllenhaal's character Darko. His performance is riveting, in the very disturbed nature that defines him, and often pushes him to his reverted predetermined death. He was not suicidal, however, his chance to find more too look forward too in death seemed to interest him more than the very world that disgusted and even challenged his nature of understanding. He is indeed a very strange and bizarre character. He will seem to many like a complete mystery in the paranoia in which he constantly acts on. But none the less his often popular, and then creepy manner of expression question the film's true goal. The film itself is a fantasy film that captures the times of the 80's through it's slow musical montages, and questions the very insecurities of other characters, particularly those that either experienced cruelty and doubt. Farmer, Cunningham, Cherita, and Gretchen, all these characters through the film's ending montage represent their depression. I can only see the purpose of that long glance for showing that just like Donnie, these characters experienced their own forms of weakness, only for Donnie to solve it, in not the most reasonable manner, but at least with a final and unchangeable result. The movie is just very weird for my understanding because I just taking my best guess.