head scratching, thought provoking, sweat inducing experience

Rating: 6/10 (3 April 2014)

Have you ever tried Sudoku, Brain Training on the Nintendo DS and watching Countdown all at the same time? Sounds like a difficult task right? Well that's exactly the level of head scratching, thought provoking, sweat inducing experience I had while watching Donnie Darko. I have literally watched the film three times and I still don't understand one iota of the mind bending Rubik cubeness of this film. What does it all mean? Because I literally don't have a clue! Donnie Darko is one of those few films that I have found completely impossible to distinguish whether it is so far out the box that it is actually the box itself type of master piece, like Stanley Kubrick's 2001 Space Odyssey or Shane Carruth's Primer or is merely utter rubbish masquerading itself as an intelligent and unique film, such as Minority Report and Oblivion – Ummm I wonder what both films have in common?
From what I can decipher from Richard Kelly's (director/writer) story line, is it is based around this character Donnie Darko – sound like a superhero right? Well that character is played by Jake Gyllenhaal, which I'm pretty sure every mother, daughter and girlfriend already knows who he is. The guy has been know to have demonstrated time and time again that he posses a lot of range as an actor, appearing in films such as Zodiac and Brokeback Mountain. But in this particular film he once again plays against all heartthrob type casting by playing a genius teenager who knows everything there is to know about the Smurfs – make him President right? But at the same time he is a very troubled young man, one of these troubles manifests itself in a 6ft tall bunny named Frank who tells him that the world will end in 28 days, 6 hours, 42 minutes and twelve seconds. So for the rest of the film he tries to unravel the mystery around the strange occurrences plaguing his life. Along the way the bunny that only he can see, keeps popping out of now and telling him to do stuff such a flooding the school and setting someone's house on fire. But don't worry it's not all doom and gloom, there is some really cool science stuff revolving around time travel and all its possibilities for you SCI-FI enthusiasts and there is also a love interest in the form of Gretchen and beautiful girl whose life is riddled with misery for all you romantic types. The film is also riddled with a abundance of acting stars, such as local author Patrick Swayze, cool and mysterious teacher Drew Barrymore and high achieving older sister Maggie Gyllenhaal – and yes they are related in real life.
Okay now we got that out of the way, what works in the film? Well the acting performance are all subtle, no one is playing to outperform anyone else's, instead the main cast all remain true to their idiosyncratic odd ball characters which makes them all so endearing and likable. My favourite performance was Jena Malone's, who was able to build a character that at the drop of the hat can be strong and fierce one moment, then sweet and fragile the next, which was why it was always a delight to see her come on screen. Another aspect of the film that I loved, was the way the film never wants limited itself to just the one genre, instead it was constantly evolving and changing; one minute its wacky and funny shown best in the family meal scenes, the next its sci-fi awesomeness in the scenes between Donnie and the sciences teacher and it suddenly becomes sweet and lovely, illustrated best anytime Gretchen and Donne are together. but what I didn't like in the film was the way they had such captivating and interesting characters, mainly being Drew Barrymore's teacher character who I felt could have added so much to the narrative yet was given such a passive inconsequential role. I also felt that Richard Kelly should have added a lot more in depth meaning to the piece, because it seemed all to shallow and lacking in any real direction and strong ideals to convey.
Okay sure I still don't know if I loved or hated it, so all I can say for certain was that I enjoyed watching the film and would strongly recommended anyone who is in the mood for something unique and off beat and with plenty of amazing acting gold.