Rent Donnie Darko on Amazon Video (paid link)
Written by: Richard Kelly
Directed by: Richard Kelly
Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Jena Malone, Mary McDonnell, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Patrick Swayze, Noah Wyle, Drew Barrymore, Seth Rogen
Rated: R
Watch the trailer
Plot
After narrowly escaping a bizarre accident, a troubled teenager is plagued by visions of a man in a large rabbit suit who manipulates him to commit a series of crimes.
Verdict
It's a strange movie that captures teenage angst and fear through time travel and alternate realities. The mythology is deep but not necessary to understand the movie. With how the movie is structured, numerous interpretations result from the plot. A natural reaction is to wonder what happened and what this movie is about, but all the pieces are there to determine a conclusion. It's a fun puzzle to figure out.
Watch it.
Review
The first time I saw this movie I was completely intrigued. It's such a strange movie, and I love it for that. I watched this movie many times, fascinated by the story and the design of Frank. This has a supplemental book, The Philosophy of Time Travel, which is referenced in the movie. You don't need it to understand the plot, but it does expand on the story. I watch all movies time travel related, and this is such a neat concept. Part of the fun is putting the pieces together.
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| Jake Gyllenhaal plays Donnie Darko. |
Donnie (Jake Gyllenhaal) deals with emotional problems and a troubled past. We first see him wake up in the middle of the road. He soon starts to hear a voice from somebody in a rabbit costume.
The soundtrack is great and the interactions feel authentic, from Donnie's awkwardness to how his dad laughs upon hearing where Donnie told a teacher to insert the love and fear lifeline.
The branch point of the story is the jet engine falling on Donnie's house. From there Frank the rabbit instructs Donnie to commit crimes that all intersect perfectly so that everything aligns and Donnie will fulfill his destiny. Donnie feels isolated and alone. He wants there to be something more. That's an underlying theme of this movie. He's not ready to die until he addresses those feelings. That jet engine would have killed him if Frank hadn't called him away, inadvertently saving Donnie.
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| Frank the rabbit. |
While Donnie and a teacher at one point discuss free choice, my conclusion is that everything is predetermined. At one point Donnie can see people's paths, it looks like a bubble that extends from the torso. Donnie can see into the future, at least short term. Time and choice are predetermined. Every event that happens, perpetrated by Donnie as directed by Frank creates a chain reaction that brings him to a spot to accept his fate. There was only one way Donnie's story could ever end.
My theory is that God or a higher power provided Donnie a tangent timeline to reconcile his fate as an act of compassion. God gave Donnie the illusion of choice to choose death of his own accord. This could also be a death dream in Donnie's final seconds, but with the references to God I don't think that's the intent.
This clearly has parallels to a savior story, and when I finally saw the director's cut that theory was confirmed. The story also directly parallels The Last Temptation of Christ which is referenced in the movie. I didn't like the director's cut as it removed all ambiguity about what was happening. That cut seemed to just add a bunch of references to God. I like the ambiguity. This could also be Donnie playing a Jesus figure, having to sacrifice himself to save the world. The tangent universe is inherently unstable.
Richard Kelly was only twenty five when he made this movie. I've watched all of his proceeding movies, but none of them ever came close to this one.
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