best see this thing a couple times, indeed

Rating: 9/10 (18 April 2005)

DONNIE DARKO: The Director's Cut The first time I saw Donnie Darko, I was very distracted. I was drinking a lot of Heineken with some friends at this girl's house...she had a boyfriendwho was working at the timeand I had the hots for her. She insisted we watch Donnie Darko, a movie she loved. I'd heard of it, but never had a chance to see it, as it played in theaters for about twenty minutes.
So the first time I saw it, I didn't get it. I enjoyed the writing ("How exactly does one suck a f***?"), the performancesJake Gyllenhaal mixes creepiness and coolness effectively, creating a thoroughly believable, somewhat disturbed dude-and writer/director Richard Kelly's visuals, the centerpiece of which is obviously Donnie's new imaginary pal, the six-foot rabbit named Frank, (with a head that looks like Rob Zombie's idea of the Easter Bunny). Now, the DVD Director's Cut has restored about twenty minutes of footage. Now, I couldn't exactly tell you which scenes were cut originally, but I do know that certain gaps in the first version have been patched up...as well as they could, since like most sci-fi/fantasy phantasmagorias, it runs on its own version of logic.
The film opens with Donnie sprawled on the side of the road as the sun comes up. It's a weird opening; he looks like a car hit him. But Donnie just...likes to do strange things. His WASP-ish parents have sent him to a psychiatristhe burnt down an empty house, he tells the new girl, Gretchen, (Jena Malone), "can't drive until I'm 21, that sort of thing." His parents are played by Holmes Osborne and Mary McDonnell, and they're two of my favorite characters in the movie. His dad, Eddie, seems like he's been in the suburbs so long he's not even jaded...Donnie's stunts, like telling an empty-headed teacher to stick a ridiculous assignment up her ass, simply make him laugh. And Mary McDonnell is a great actress...Donnie's mom is a genuinely good lady, and tries (only half-heartedly) to be the disciplinarian: "I don't think telling any woman to forcibly insert an object up her anus is something that should go without consequence," she tells her husband. "I think we should buy him a moped," he says. "I think we should get a divorce," his wife says, and they both start laughing.
At the outset, Frank the giant bunny rabbit tells to Donnie to follow him out of his house, and gives him a countdown: in 28 days, the world with end. Donnie smiles, Gyllenhaal's wicked little grin reminiscent of Jack Nicholson's in The Shining. He wakes up on a golf course and when he gets home, discovers a jet engine has somehow smashed through his house, landing in his room, right on his bed. Had his imaginary friend not lured him out, he'd have been flattened.
In the days that follow, he woos the new girl, Gretchen, enrages the braindead teacher who is enamored of a shallow, Brylcreemed self-help guru (portrayed by, improbably enough, Patrick Swayze), and Frank makes him...do things. Drew Barrymore and Noah Wylie have small parts as married teachers at Middlesex (brilliant name), the private school that is sort of bane of Donnie's existence while at the same time providing him with the opportunities to display to everyone around him just how full of s*** they all are. ("You know what you say to people like that?" his dad tells him at one point, "F*** You!") At one point, Wylie (who seems to only take movie roles wherein he plays a somewhat distant, cold bastard...he must know he's good at it) shakes his head as he grades papers and says to Barrymore, "Donnie Darko..." and they just smile knowingly.
I might not have been QUITE as quietly whacked as Donnie when I was in high school, but I'm pretty sure I inspired a few lively teacher's lounge discussions. I like Donnie Darko the character a little more than the movie itself, because he's as weird as I am. The difference is, he's the middle child, and I'm the oldest. (Jake's older sister, Maggie Gyllenhaal plays Donnie's older sister Elizabeth, and Donnie has a little sister, Samantha, who's part of a little girl dance troupe, "Sparkle Motion") In fact, I think the most interesting part of the movie isn't the time traveling, paradoxical weirdness but Donnie's case-study as one of the most extreme cases of Middle Child Syndrome ever.
Still, the Director's Cut goes a long way to actually explaining how Donnie can see long, gelatinous tendrils growing out of people's chests, leading them to their destiny (they look like the water-alien's in The Abyss, actually)...and if you haven't seen it, well get going and check it out, because it takes a lot of time to explain. Still, when I see it, I'm always reminded of a certain girl...and while at first, I thought the ending was a little blah and contrived, I feel differently now...now, I think it takes the movie into a different realm, one where we might ask ourselves what we might sacrifice for someone we loved.