Donnie Very Disappointing

Rating: 1/10 (8 April 2005)

To read some of the more lengthy reviews of this instantly forgettable movie, one would think "Donnie Darko" is the greatest movie never seen. Believe me, it ain't. Far from it. This DVD probably spends most of its life on the shelf at your local video store, removed sporadically for viewing by some soon-to-be-disappointed film nut, checking it out for to discover what all the hoopla isn't about. I'm not so sure the DVD always gets returned in its original condition, after all, when one expects too much and gets squat for their returns--things get busted.
The blame for this dismal failure falls on writer-director, Richard Kelly, whose flawed "deus ex machina" ending completely undermines some mildly interesting stuff (time-travel, teen/parent relations, social satire) that he had going on before tanking it. Kelly's ill-conceived wrap-up renders "Donnie Darko" as nothing more than an insipid cross between "Sliding Doors" (w/Gwyneth Paltrow) and "Heathers" (w/Winona Ryder, et al.); a teen angst flick hinging upon the destiny of its protagonist. But, unlike these other two flicks, "Donnie Darko" fails dismally because in the end--because of its ending, leaving one feeling completely cheated, if not, in my case, disgusted.
The fault is Kelly's alone. His principals share no blame.
The story, briefly: Jake Gyllenhaal plays Donnie Darko, a morose, high school "weirdo." Drugs prescribed by the shrink his loving parents send him to cause him to hallucinate Frank, an alien-looking space-bunny who orders him to commit violent acts and predicts the imminent end of the world.
Frank's prediction is rendered--early in the movie--on the same day a jet engine plunges into the Darko's residence, entering through the roof above Donnie's bedroom and boring a hole right on down to the first floor. When that occurs, we are misled to believe that Donnie was not in his bedroom at the time of the accident. (He is found sleeping on the fairway at a local golf course by two neighborhood men.) I mention this because this intentional deception by Kelly will either tick you off big time (as it did me) or lead you to make a self-appeasing justification allowing for such a gimmick.
In either case, the jet engine accident, as framed by the aforementioned dubious ending, clearly divides this picture into two distinct parts: the part that did not happen, and the part that did happen. Unfortunately, the part that did NOT happen makes for 90% of the movie. Kelly undermines his own efforts with his choice of ending, obliterating one's concern for all that did NOT transpire. By his own devise, he turns the movie into a "what if" flick, a la "Sliding Doors." Ironically, the thought "what if" comes to mind when thinking about this movie, as in, "What if Kelly cut out the wrap-up ending and left us hanging?" At least then I'd have something to think about. As is, because Kelly chose to divide the movie into unequal parts, tossing 90% of it into the dumpster at movie's end, there's not much left to discuss. Kelly clearly shows that the jet engine did, indeed, kill Donnie Darko, and but so all that transpired after that event is, like the film, instantly forgettable.