#42 - Donnie Darko (2001)

How can I describe Donnie Darko in one word? "Weird". This is by far one of the weirdest films I have ever seen. In general, I liked it, it's an interesting and original premise and has much to offer, but at the same time the whole thing is so weird and surrealistic it can ruin the experience for some people.

So here's a brief summary: Donnie Darko (Jake Gyllenhaal) is a somewhat disturbed teenager that witnesses a series of visions involving a twisted humanoid rabbit named Frank that tells him the world will end in 28 days. The rest of the film involves Donnie doing research on time travel to prevent the end from happening, while he tries to carry out his "normal" life. I don't want to know what kind of drugs the creative team were on when they pitched the idea, but other than this wierd-ass plot, a lot of people can find the rest of the movie to be really good.

       

...If you can overlook the fact that a monstrous rabbit is telling the protagonist to burn stuff, that is.

I won't say Donnie is a completely relatable character: I mean, he's borderline insane, violent and has to put up with horrifying hallucinations, but I really liked other aspects of the character, from a teen angst point of view, particularly at his school. I've never been a rebellious person myself, but I do protest firmly against something I find wrong or imposed upon myself, and have gotten into heated (but polite) arguments with my teachers dozens of times. For instance, what is the purpose of learning syntax in high school aside from basic concepts (it's even more useless in Spanish, trust me). Seeing a character behave so accurately in that exact way was great.

And while the film deals with themes like science fiction or spirituality very good (I mean, the entire premise is constructed around both), the true message of the film, in my opinion, is the clarity of mind behind insanity. I know they are opposite concepts, but the idea of alienated or rejected people being able to comprehend a society or a reality better than those fully immersed in it, as if they had an outsider's point of view, is just brilliant. Aside from Donnie, you have their English teacher (Drew Barrymore) that can probably fall into the "rebellious, idealistic teacher that fights the system" cliché, but still manages to empathize with Donnie; his girlfriend-something with an abusive father...

        

Just because she's a teacher doesn't mean we have to stand her old-fashioned, narrow-minded bullshit.

Again, you have a very good film here, you just have to pay little importance to the crazy premise (and other stuff like 20 year olds playing highscoolers). The ending is very, very confusing: the guy that recommended it to me said he has watched the film like three times and still can't understand it. So you get the idea, it's not a film for everyone.