Donnie Darko (the adorably creepy Jake Gyllenhaal) is very weird, troubled, and unsettling. He views the world and various ways of life in a way that would make even the most hardened Good Charlotte fan violent with jealousy. He belongs to a loving family (one of which includes Jake's real life sister Maggie, in a weird John-Joan Cusack touch) who seems to view his weirdness as an endearing quality rather than an annoyance, which is a welcome change from all the blisteringly unsympathetic families one might expect in a film about a misunderstood teenager.
What this all leads to is a meeting with a demonic bunny who tells him that the apocalypse is nigh. No, no, you haven't stumbled upon a Buffy spin-off movie starring Anya. It may seem hard to believe, but the film only gets stranger from here on out. Different characters are introduced to spice up the proceedings. There's Donnie's stoic therapist Dr. Thurman, a creepy time-travelling granny, a gross love-is-nice guru, Donnie's cutesy love interest Gretchen, Mrs. Farmer (a crazy puritanical hyper bitch), and my personal favourite, Drew Barrymore as Mrs. Pomeroy, Donnie's blunt and awesome english teacher. All these side characters may seem to exist solely to produce weirdness and confusion, but by the end of the film, they're all tangentially related and the meanings of their various existances become clear.
But really, the film isn't about them. Just take a look at the title. Donnie is just a weird kid. But he's also strangely loveable; you can't help but think that a nice hug, some reassuring words, and a good ol' cup of tea every so often would do all the difference in the world for him. But no. We can never have our main characters in arthouse movies ever be happy, huh? Donnie wants to be happy... but he's not. He's lonely, over-analytical, and whenever he encounters The Demonic Bunny of Doom, something primal and scary opens up inside him.
Jake, Jena, Maggie, Drew, and everyone else were all great performance-wise. No real stinker to speak of. In the hands of a lesser actor, Donnie would come off as merely a disturbing one-note mouth breather, but Jake gives him nuance and a fresh likeability (especially in the dinner scene at the beginning). Daveigh Chase (playing Donnie's youngest sister Samantha) seems to have unfortunately drawn the short straw when it comes to screentime. Would it have been so much to ask that Samantha crawl out of a tv and kill someone? Donnie Darko is obviously a low budget film, but the production values don't stink and the CGI is pretty good. I mean, I've seen better, but it isn't bring-you-out-of-the-experience awful (such as in a particular Hugh Jackman summer movie about killing monsters while looking fabulous with long hair).
So, do I like this film as much as Simon (who probably gets a boner every time somebody verbally expresses the title), or am I closer to Mark (who probably becomes flaccid every time somebody verbally expresses the title... because Mark is perpetually aroused) in his opinion on the film? GUESS WHAT KIDS, I FALL IN THE MIDDLE, slightly skewered toward Simon. It's a good film, but it has its shortcomings. And this may be because I'm an Americanized dolt, but I would have appreciated some more insight into Frank's character, because his bit at the end-of-film montage left me wanting more.
But this, really, is the type of film that's defined by the viewer. So watch it for yourself and see what you bring to it. Donnie Darko is puzzling, to say the least. I mean, what possible logical explanation did the producers have for denying us see Donnie play the skinflute in front of Dr. Thurman?
P.S.: I'll finish the REcap when Billy admits that my Elisha Cuthbert/Mila Kunis lesbo sig is amazing.
