If It Leaves Me Thinking It's Good

Rating: 6/10 (20 November 2005)

I have to say that I do like this movie even though I don't completely understand it yet after watching it for the first time. The reason I like it is because it has left me thinking quite a few days after I've seen it. Any movie that can do that for me is considered at least decent in my book.
However, the confusion I found in this movie is much the same as found in The Terminator movies. In the terminator a man is sent in the past to save the woman from the terminator. He ends up impregnating her with a son who turns out to be the man who sent him in the past in the first place. This to me doesn't make sense because there is no reason for him to even go in the past until the boy exists and he doesn't exist until he goes in the past.
In this movie the same goes for certain events like Frank and the turbine. How can Frank be there to save him if Frank wouldn't have even died unless he was there to lead Donnie to the events of killing him? And why would he save him and then lead him to do all that other stuff and then lead him to finding the way back to where he was supposed to die? I'm sure all of these questions have probably been asked before.
Sorry if I'm repeating but does anyone know what the writers really meant by all that stuff? Did they say in one of the special features I didn't see or something? I am usually pretty good at understanding movies like this but for some reason Donnie Darko (and yes that is an awesome name) has got me stumped. It seemed like the movie was supposed to have a special message but I didn't get it because of these things so any help would be appreciated. Thx ~Stephanie