Never trust a "cult movie" which is younger than you,,,

Rating: 6/10 (13 March 2005)

One problem of this film is that the main character, Donnie Darko, is an anti-hero, someone not to be proud of - although I guess that his rebellious behaviour can somehow be appreciated by teenagers. It is a problem, because to make you interested in the stupid things he does, there should be something - a motivation. And when other more deprecable characters come into the picture (as the fear-love teacher), and you are supposed to side against her, it's not that easy, because in order to do that you should side with Donnie Darko.
Another problem is that the film - and I don't know why - has become a "cult". OK, time travel is a fascinating thing, but this is definitely not the first movie about that (and, I'd say, not the best). And because it is a cult, your expectations are high - higher than due, and so the absolute normality and averageness of this film pops out evidently.
And maybe the biggest problem is that part of the (little) beauty of the film is outside of it, actually: in the discussions, interpretations, "parallel worlds" that live within the fans.
It is good of course if a film sparkles ideas and discussions, but first of all it should be good itself. And I'm afraid I've seen too many stupid and boring scenes, that yes, they can look less silly "a posteriori", but a film must be a pleasure to enjoy "real time" too.
The 15 BBFC classification reads "Contains...psychological horror". Horror??? Psychological??? Hey, when I see a horror movie I get scared (yes, indeed), not bored. All I see here is laughable. And, among the other things out of place, the politics deserve a special mention: it went too far if its purpose was just to frame temporally the film (and what for?).
When the end came, well, I was still begging the film not to end, but to start! The final was interesting, and the ending scene of great beauty (thumb up for the song "Mad world"), but in my opinion that was the only good part of all the movie. A whole movie should not rely uniquely on one scene.
Probably, if this had been a short film, fifteen minutes say, it would have been a great short film.
By the way, I saw the director's cut.