Migraine-Inducing But Fascinating Stuff

Rating: 7/10 (3 October 2006)

Some movies take many years to achieve cult status; others become objects of cult adoration relatively quickly. "Donnie Darko," released several weeks after 9/11, has achieved that quantum leap to cult status faster than any film I know. I've never seen so many laudatory reviews here on the IMDb, where over 1,700 (!) people have taken the time to sing the film's praises. Having now finally seen the movie, I can understand its cult appeal. Dealing with an emotionally troubled youth, Donnie Darko, who is not only in therapy and on prescribed psychotropic drugs but who is also possibly hallucinating a death's-head, man-sized bunny rabbit, the film dishes out a story involving time travel, alternate universes and kozmik wormholes. The picture has been impeccably made by tyro writer/director Richard Kelly (and for only $4.5 million!), is well performed by the entire cast (how nice to see Katharine Ross on screen again!), and features excellent use of '80s pop tunes, especially "The Killing Moon" by Echo and the BUNNYMEN and Tears for Fears' "Mad World." Too bad the film is also hopelessly confusing. I've watched the darn thing twice on DVD already, and although the second viewing (with the English subtitles on) did clear up some matters, too many questions remain, and still left me scratching my head. One can get a migraine trying to riddle out all the temporal paradoxes and Mobius-like plot convolutions hinted at here. Thus, the aforementioned cult, spending endless days picking at clues and debating this brainteaser no end. But as Donnie himself says somewhere in the film while talking about God, one can debate some subjects forever and still not come up with concrete answers. And that's just how I feel about Kelly's film. Still, pretty fascinating stuff...