ONLY MINOR FLAWS IN THIS ORIGINAL GEM

Rating: 8/10 (3 November 2001)

THE BULLET AND THE BOTTOM LINE - this is the usual run-of-the-mill boy meets girl, boy falls for girl, boy introduces girl to his imaginary 6 foot tall evil rabbit buddy with a metallic skull-like mask. As if making it in the world of the late 80's American zeitgeist while dealing with girls and evil rabbits weren't enough, he also has to deal with self-help gurus, terrorist classmates and seeing Katherine Ross as a middle aged therapist ("middle-aged" being a polite term for frightfully older). DONNIE DARKO is a film that will have trouble finding an audience because it challenges them with both a mentally disturbed protagonist and the big boogieman of studio zipperheads - the ambiguous ending ("...audience because it challenges them..." being a polite way to suggest that fans of "Touched By An Angel" are likely to be confused by it). DARKO is a thought provoking film that joins MEMENTO on the too short list of smart and entertaining films released this year.
What's new about this story, besides the Harvey-as-the-Terminator, is that writer and director Richard Kelly sets DARKO in the last months of the Reagan Era, October 1988. George Bush (the original, not the sequel) is seen making some later to be embarrassing debate statements about his good friend Manuel in Panama who couldn't possibly be involved with drugs and money laundering. While it does have the de rigueur period soundtrack and cultural icon references, Kelly does his best to keep them in the background. So, even though Tears For Fears provides the music for a montage and the now forgotten children's game of Hungry, Hungry Hippos is the punchline to a therapy session, the kids attend a private school that thus keeps the clothes and hairstyles subdued. In fact, probably the most remarkable thing about DARKO is how tightly Kelly keeps both the overall tone and his protagonist's performance reined in to maintain a restrained quality to them.
The Donnie Darko of DONNIE DARKO is very much, without-a-doubt slipping into dementia. There are no coy games being played here as in K-PAX of whether or not Donnie is seeing the things he thinks he is seeing. By not giving in to the Hollywood impulse of having the mentally disturbed character either capable of incredible human insight that has him tossing off bon mots of wisdom or a cute crackpot who says funny nonsensical non sequiturs, DARKO allows for something much more human. And unpredictable, which becomes the source of DARKO's tension. As likeable as Donnie is, there is always the foreboding sense that he is liable to really go off the deep end any moment. Given the countdown gimmick in the film, it is inevitable that something is going to happen. Which is to say, Kelly has a lot riding on the actor inhabiting the title character.
Seldom do performances deserve the heaps of praise they are swathed with, the part being so showy that the appraisers confuse the uniqueness of the character with the gifts of the actor (Dustin Hoffman in RAINMAN or Al Pacino in SCENT OF A WOMAN just to name two Academy Award winning ham-fests). This has less to do with the actual performance than the reviewers desire to be the one to find the "next Brando." Much harder to appreciate is the skill to pull off a nuanced character who manages to emote on a broad range with subtle shadings. Being able to do this while portraying a mentally disturbed boy without resorting to scenery-chewing histrionics is a rare feat and Jake Gyllenhaal should be on the very very short list of noteworthy performances this year for doing it. Two years ago he showed his chops in his first starring role in OCTOBER SKY and DARKO confirms that that performance was no lucky fluke. If the part was bigger, Drew Barrymore would also deserve any awards she will probably garner for what is arguably her first real adult role of the English teacher Ms. Pomeroy.
The young-bold-teacher-with-radical-new-ideas is not exactly a cinema first, but Barrymore plays it so completely free of inappropriately ennobling tics that it seems fresh. It's not so much the part but that it is Barrymore playing it that the surprise here. Another former child actress moving to older parts is Jena Malone, most recognizable from STEPMOM. As the love interest, she does a lot with the little time Kelly allows for her. Looking down the road, it is easy to see Malone segueing to leading lady roles. This is not to suggest that the rest of the cast is dogmeat for all do more than well enough. One of the few stumbles that Kelly makes is Kittie Farmer (Beth Grant) a preachy teacher and book banner who is at first blush a cliché. At one point she wears a very 80's religiously sloganed t-shirt. But surrounded by such unique characters Farmer comes across like people who do in fact act like clichés.
A lot of the film's strength comes from the fact that these characters surrounding Donnie are given a real human depth, most notably the Darko parents who are given the rare-for-fictional-parents facet of unique senses of humor. Unlike other Hollywood worlds where the parents are portrayed as the likely source of a disturbed child's mental illness, the Darkos are seen as real people doing what they can to help their son. There's a pathos to this depiction of the realistic randomness of dementia. All of which goes towards making DONNIE DARKO one of the original gems of filmmaking to come out this year. It is not a perfect film, having an awkward third act deus ex machina and developments that hint too strongly towards a supernaturalism that is out of place. But these are minor complaints for such a unique film.