Questions Aplenty (Based on original release)

Rating: 8/10 (13 February 2005)

I'm a science fiction kind of guy, so when I heard the good word about the movie Donnie Darko, I was excited. My anticipation was only partially met. Yes, it is a quality science fiction movie, but there could have been a lot more to it, and a little less of an ambiguous ending. I do not mind having unanswered questions at the end of the movie, but I just thought there was too much to this movie that we were expected to know. Regardless, any movie where the world is scheduled to end by a certain date automatically has my attention, I like that kind of thing. The acting, especially Jake Gyllenhaal in the title character, is top notch, and since it takes place in the late 1980s, there is fun nostalgia of the date. The political divide between the older Bush parents and the young Dukakis kids is priceless. The movie revolves around Donnie Darko who has an invisible friend Frank who walk around in Darko's mind in an evil looking bunny rabbit suit. The music sets the tone to the movie perfectly, lots of 80s songs and low, quiet composed music setting the mood of despair and questioning of what's really going on. While a fun movie, the ending left me asking questions about what we saw, and that's good, but I thought there was one question too many. Perhaps the longer director's cut helps wrap up the movie a little better. A mentally challenging movie to be sure and would be perfect if we were presented with all of the facts.