Donnie Darko

Originally Released: 2001
Re-released (Director's Cut): 2004
Drama, Sci-fi
Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Jena Malone, Mary McDonnell, Maggie Gyllenhaal
Director: Richard Kelly
Running Time: 113 minutes (2001 version - 2004 re-release has additional 20 minutes)
Rated R for scary images and adult situations, language

The breakdown:
A very troubled teenager has an imaginary "friend" named Frank, who happens to be a very tall demonic-looking rabbit.  Of course, no one else can see Frank.  Frank saves Donnie's life one night and asks Donnie to commit a lot of crimes.  Frank has also let Donnie in on a little secret, the world is going to end in 28 days, 6 hours, 42 minutes, and 12 seconds.


I had no idea what this movie was about when I watched it.  All I had was the Directv description, which was pretty cryptic.  I knew I'd heard of it, but I'd never seen a preview.
So having no preconceived ideas, I loved it and recommend it to anyone and everyone.  I really really enjoyed this movie!

The film is set in 1988 (I can only suppose this is to have a great 80's soundtrack and to possibly avoid having to deal with a few inventions like the internet and cell phones in the plot.)  I truly don't mind an 80's setting. 
Donnie Darko is a teenager who has been talking with a psychiatrist and is on medications for a condition that is never explicitly explained (it could be schizophrenia, but it's also possible that nothing is wrong with him mentally).  He doesn't get along with his family, his peers, his teachers, or really anyone.  He makes a new friend at school through Malone, since she's new to town.  One night while he's sleeping a voice draws him out of his room, and out of his house.  He sees Frank for the first time who tells him the world is coming to an end soon.  While Donnie is out, a huge jet engine falls onto his house and into his room where he would have been sleeping.  So Frank has just saved his life.
Donnie sees Frank often and Frank tells him to do things - stuff like flood the school and set people's houses on fire.  Frank also tells him about time travel. 
Donnie begins researching time travel through a fictitious book called
"The Philosophy of Time Travel" written by a local resident called Grandma Death; the idea of parallel universes is introduced.
There's a lot of things I could tell you about this movie, but if you're interested in seeing it, it's better I not.  I can tell you the reasons why I liked this movie so much though.....I've never seen anything else like it, so it's very creative and original.  The plot is engaging and the viewer definitely has to pay attention to try and understand the whole movie.  The acting is good, the characters are interesting, and Frank is very creepy.  Most of the time I think movies are a place to escape to and zone out from the rest of the world, but don't take any brain power to understand them because everything is laid out in front of you.  With this movie, no one tells you what it all means and what really happened.  You need critical thinking skills and you have to figure out what happened for yourself.  Sometimes, this is the easy way out for directors when they don't know how to finish a story, they leave it open ended and call it an ending.  This open-ended stuff or enigmatic ending either really annoys me because it's not done right, or sometimes it brilliant, and I love it.  In this movie's case, it's brilliant and the story is strong enough to end the way that it did.  Christopher Nolan's "Inception" was strong enough to end the way it did, but you take a movie like David Lynch's "Mulholland Dr." and forget it!  That movie confused me so bad at the end I hated it.  Don't even get me started, in fact, I think I'll review that one in a separate post. 

Just know with this movie, there is a pretty good soundtrack with one of the most sad (but pretty) songs I've ever heard, there's a very original story that's interesting to watch, and Drew Barrymore proves that she still cannot act (sooooooooooo painful to watch her try!)  The ending might confuse some as well, but a lot of people will probably interpret it differently.  I cannot discuss my understanding of the end without ruining the movie, so I will refrain.  Perhaps later in a separate post we'll talk about the end.

Some interesting tidbits:
This movie was supposed to premiere around September of 2011, but since 9-11 happened (and the airplane accident is a big part of the movie) they postponed it to October of the same year and only released it in about 58 theaters.  Of course, no one got to see it.  When it was released on DVD, the movie got a very good reception and cult status.  After the director saw the big fan base he re-released it in theaters in 2004 as a director's cut with an additional 20 minutes of never before seen footage.
I have only seen the original theatrical release, but plan on watching the director's cut soon.

I give the original theatrical release 4 out of 5 stars (and not 5) only because Drew Barrymore totally takes you out of the movie simply because she cannot act, and some of the dialogue (language) I feel was a bit unnecessary in some parts.  That's my only complaint.