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All Movie Info
Directed By
Richard Kelly
Written By:
Richard Kelly
Cast:
Jake Gyllenhaal, Jena Malone, Drew Barrymore, Mary McDonnell, James Duval, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Holmes Osborne, Katharine Ross, Patrick Swayze, Noah Wyle, Stuart Stone, Seth Rogen, Arthur Taxier, Arthur Taxier
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Donnie Darko (2001)
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Movie Review by Jarrod 
December 6th, 2007
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'Donnie Darko' is a strange and brilliant film, that confounds and intrigues its audience, yet never cheats them, if something doesn't make sense, then you have only yourself to blame, since the puzzling plot circles back on itself, and provides all the pieces you need to figure it out, though it is done subtly and slyly, nothing is ever obvious, and some images are cryptic and mysterious, but are not without context, they exist for a reason, if only to mislead viewers into making false assumptions and drawing inaccurate conclusions about them. The title character (Jake Gyllenhaal) is a high school student whose state test scores are "intimidating", yet he is solemn and perhaps grossly disturbed, as he is repeatedly visited by a someone named Frank, who wears a bunny costume and tells Donnie the precise time the world will come to an end. Donnie is prone to sleepwalking, he ends up miles from his suburban home most every morning, which worries his parents, Eddie and Rose (Holmes Osbourne and Mary McDonnell). One of his nocturnal strolls actually saves his life; while he is out, a jet engine falls through the roof of his bedroom. This bizarre accident is never fully explained. In any sense, it makes Donnie and his family a local celebrity of sorts.
He meets Gretchen Ross (Jena Malone), who becomes his girlfriend shortly after moving to town with her mother. She is inexplicably drawn to him, maybe because of his weirdness, or his originality, or the fact that he doesn't constantly subject her to sexual harassment, like other boys do. Donnie has two sisters, Elizabeth (played by Jake's real-life sibling Maggie) and Samantha (Daveigh Chase), the latter of whom is part of a dance troupe, coached by the obnoxiously uptight Mrs Farmer (Beth Grant), Donnie's gym teacher. Donnie likes his English teacher, Karen Pomeroy (Drew Barrymore), not in any romantic way, but because she encourages intelligent, provocative discussions and assigns texts that may not necessarily fit that well within the normal curriculum, and this rebellious aspect fascinates him, especially if one compares it to the total lack of such a trait in Mrs Farmer, or even science teacher Kenneth Monnitoff (Noah Wyle), whom Donnie asks about time travel, yet meets with resistance when he brings God into the picture, as Monnitoff doesn't want to lose his job by bringing up religious issues.
Time travel is a major part of the story, Donnie wonders if it is possible, and Monnitoff suggests that it is, at least according to Stephen Hawking, the famed physicist, and a local elderly woman nicknamed Grandma Death, who is often found standing in the middle of the road in front of her house, obsessively checking her mailbox for a letter that never seems to arrive. Grandma Death, also known as Roberta Sparrow, wrote a book decades ago that aptly describes what Donnie is experiencing with Frank, and odd liquid-like things that he occasionally sees coming out of people's chests, and what he reveals in therapy to his psychiatrist, Dr. Thurman (Katharine Ross). Frank tells Donnie to perform a variety of tasks, most of which involve destruction of property, including an act of arson, which targets the large estate of self-help guru Jim Cunningham (Patrick Swayze) who is full of meaningless, dime a dozen advice best suited to a TV talk show. 'Donnie Darko' is eerie, compelling, and ultimately tragic, and the ending unfolds to a hauntingly appropriate song by Gary Jules called Mad World, which perfectly captures the somber and sad tone of the movie. Frank's identity is cleverly revealed, and the film keeps raising the question of whether what Donnie sees is actually real, or if it is all a delusion, a product of his deepening insanity.
I am not sure if we ever receive a definitive response to that question, but Gyllenhaal's performance is thoroughly convincing, as he imbues Donnie with cold rationality, and penetrating insight into what people are really like underneath. Barrymore and Swayze offer solid supporting roles, and I particularly liked McDonnell as Donnie's mother. The special effects are used sparingly, but imaginatively, and while I feel they may be inspired somewhat by The Abyss, I have yet to see anything close to a demonic rabbit creature portrayed elsewhere. And is it merely coincidence that Ms. Pomeroy assigns Watership Down, the classic by Richard Adams, about rabbits that are supposed to symbolize human beings? There are many layers to that book, and to this movie, and maybe that is what they are supposed to have in common. I have barely scratched the surface.
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