Unique story, masterfully done

Rating: 8/10 (15 March 2007)

When a movie sets an off beat tone like this, the level of quality of the presentation makes it either a brilliant masterpiece or an incoherent mess. This one was expertly organized with generous doses of everything from sinister humor to philosophical and imaginative perceptions, and succeeds in becoming one of the masterpieces.
This story is as rich as Fort Knox with symbolic metaphors, there's literally one at every moment of the film. You'll probably notice, in repeat viewings, new elements you hadn't noticed before. From blatant ones, such as Donnie's last name, to subtleties, such as who was on the plane when it lost its engine, they just keep on coming. The film will leave you considering its many meanings long after seeing it. Different people will take different messages from the story's many sub-plots; I suspect if you were to put 12 people in a room and have them write their interpretation of the film's meaning, you'd get 13 different responses. The well meaning motivations of Donnie and others that lead to destructive, rather than constructive, solutions is only one topic to analyze. How much of what we see is real or delusion?
The acting is sensational; the entire cast become their respective roles, some of which are quirky and even bizarre. Jake Gyllenhall, is great in the title role, at times creepy, evil, heroic, psychotic, hypnotic, confused, introspective and so on. Just discussing his character alone can leave many opinions, I'll simply refer to him as an "anti-hero." What would seem at the outset as a film being weird just for the sake of being weird proves to be much more. This film could have been lazy and stereotyped one character to pick on, but it succeeds in rounding all its characters, their strong as well as weak points. A film well worth a viewing. Make that two, or three viewings.