good atmosphere but

Rating: Null/10 (28 April 2003)

there is a hindu myth of the dreaming Bhrama who has constructed our "reality". this Bhrama sleeps and dreams resting on the petals of a lotus and that lotus grows from the navel of another sleeping dreaming bhrama who also sleeps on a lotus... etc etc. when the bhrama awakens the dream ends and we cease to exist.
perhaps this myth exists to show how we really dont have much control over events in our lives even in our dreams ( which are usually composed of our desires). undoubtedly this is the case with donnie darko who even in his last few moments dreams a life which spins beyond his control; in fact even the ppl of that dream expereince events beyond thier control and undoubtedly wish they were "dreaming".
(SPOILER DONT READ IF YOU DONT LIKE TO KNOW STUFF)
now either i am REALLY old or ppl havent seen this done before; the ending for donnie darko is similar to that which was done in "Jacobs Ladder"; i dunno why everyone is so "blown away" that Donnie's "life" is composed of the last few moments of real "life" that he has before dying. Tim Robbins character goes thru this same revalation and the audience realizes that he dreamed his last few moments of a supposedly full life that is suddenly turned upside down by a feeling of dread( his impending death).
Donnie Darko is a well done movie despite the formula being done before; its paced nicely, well acted, and has its own dreamlike quallity accomp[lished by the editing and dialogue which adds to the overall atomsphere of a dream from which you cannot awaken but merely experience to its conclusion.
a definite 8 out of 10