2001’s Donnie Darko,
written and directed by Richard Kelly.
Starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Holmes Osborne, Mary McDonnell,
Maggie Gyllenhaal, Daveigh Chase, Jena Malone, Noah Wyle, Drew Barrymore,
Patrick Swayze, Katharine Ross, and James Duval.
What is it about?
Donnie Darko is a
tale of a teenage boy (played by Jake Gyllenhaal), growing up in suburban
Virginia during the late 1980’s. From the beginning, we know Donnie is
suffering from some kind of mental illness- he takes medication, has a
therapist, and keeps waking up in random places with no explanation. But things
escalate- and Donnie begins seeing an oversized bunny rabbit that convinces him
to perform acts of criminality that speak to a sinister purpose. Despite a
loving family (Holmes Osborne, Mary McDonnell, Maggie Gyllenhaal, and Daveigh
Chase) and dedicated teachers (Noah Wyle and Drew Barrymore), Donnie’s world
threatens to spin further and further out of control- and time. Will he be able
to separate reality from fantasy without becoming unwell?
Why is it worth seeing?
Anybody who claims they know what Donnie Darko is about is a liar. It’s a film that celebrates tone,
atmosphere, mystery, parallel universes, time travel, and Tears for Fears in equal measure. Is it a coming of age story, a
Lynchian satire on suburban values, a love story, a time travel paradox, an
80’s homage, a horror film, or all of the above? It’s a striking film that is as open to
interpretation as it is popular with the midnight screening crowd.
A Rorshach in film format, director Richard Kelly’s debut feature
swings for the fences, and has developed quite the cult following. Kelly
honours his own coming of age years in setting the film during the late 80’s,
and peppers the white picket fence setting with talk of political ideologies
contrasting from within the family home. From that suburban milieu, he depicts
the status quo through Parent Teacher Associations who want to ban books, preppy
dance groups, and phony self help guru’s who speak of fear and love- and
juxtaposes it with an angry teenager who (possibly) hallucinates a human sized
bunny who shares psychic and inter dimensional discovery.
Kelly’s audacious and ambitious script favours mood and
mystery over character clarity and development, and like more seminal science
fiction, has ideas that feature more prominently than the characters
themselves. Saturated in dream logic, we have a unreliable protagonist in the
teenage Gyllenhaal, who is unhappy with society- but also scared of what the
future/past may hold. Is it his doom? Salvation? Will he make a sacrifice to
save those he loves, or did he have a choice in the first place?
A film that could likely make as much sense if it started at
the end or middle, Donnie Darko
demands multiple viewings for its Escher inspired corkscrew loops, and has garnered
as much interpretation about what it’s about as it has lovers of its oddball
curlicue logic. Filled with masterful communication in a film suffused with
mystery, if only we could all have a Frank to explain it to us.
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