trite, inane garbage

Rating: 2/10 (29 December 2005)

Oh my, I can't believe there are actually people who liked this stinker. I'm having a hard time deciding where to begin, because there was SO much wrong with this movie. The script, the plot, the acting... WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?? Donnie Darko is a clichéd mess of a teen angst film that tries to be deep and edgy, but rather ends up being sloppy, dull, and derivative. Jake Gyllenhaal plays your typical outcast teen, a character done better in hundreds of films of the past 30 years or so. He escapes his social torments by doing bad things for an invisible rabbit. The whole rabbit deal can't decide if it's trying to be funny or creepy, and it comes off as neither, just kinda stupid.
The surprise ending just made me wonder why I had to sit through an hour and a half of this drivel, when it all could have been over in 5 minutes.
Bleh. Not often does a movie make me feel like someone has stolen a portion of my life. Donnie Darko accomplished that in spades.