"Donnie Darko" (2001): What???

Donnie Darko (2001)

*this post contains spoilers*

AAAAH! Donnie Darko! Hmmm, still can't quite communicate my opinion of this movie! In a way it's a really weird movie, but on the other hand I loved the fact that it was the way it was, you know, just like Gretchen who finds Donnie attractive for his weirdness (but really, watching this movie is exactly like watching the main character Donnie Darko -then again the movie itself is titled Donnie Darko, so it's no wonder it's just as weird and awkward and disturbing as he is, and come to think of it now, this is quite obvious). Anyways..

I absolutely didn't understand the movie until I checked it out on one of the websites I found on the internet that explained everything about it. Another frustrating fact is that this website also hints that to fully understand the whole thing we should best purchase the DVD and watch the DVD commentary, and also, to read the book The Philosophy of Time Travel written by a fictional character from the movie (but in reality written by the director himself), and of course not forgetting the Donnie Darko website, which according to my brother, in order to enter the website we had to crack an extremely difficult puzzle first -isn't that just great? I was really, achingly curious that I was afraid to go to bed last night until I could grasp a little understanding. So I get the plot, right: the "Tangent Universe" thing and it's effect to the world and that Donnie succeeded in bringing back the artifact to the "Primary Universe" thus preventing the end of the world, but it was the 'why' and the 'how' and the 'what' of everything that happened in detail in the chronology that was unclear to me as well as mind-blowing and was honestly frustrating to me, I had to look for answers. But anyways, this website I was talking about, it did help quite a lot.

"Donnie Darko" is directed by Richard Kelly, and stars Jake Gyllenhaal, with his sister Maggie Gyllenhaal, Patrick Swayze, Jena Malone, Drew Barrymore, Mary McDonnell, and Holmes Osborne. The story is about a teenager named Donnie Darko who is "attacked" by these visions of this creepy bunny rabbit person, who tells him that he's got 28 Days left (I forgot the specific details of hours, minutes, and seconds) before the end of the world, and induces him to do a series of crimes. It all begins the night Donnie survives a bizarre accident of a jet engine falling into his room. If he hadn't been sleepwalking that night, he would've been killed.

The version I watched was the Director's Cut out in 2004, so it included some of the excerpts of the chapters of The Philosophy of Time Travel when the previous version did not (imagine how the audience then could possibly have understood the plot without THAT).

Of course one of the reasons why I wanted to watch this movie was because I knew it got high reviews and is rated as one of IMDb's top movies. After watching it, I don't have a problem at all with that, I mean I understand why people give good reviews; because the unique, eery, original plot and screenplay; the successful settings and cinematography (the movie produced in 2001 sets back in October 1988); the creative, thriller, spooky presentation and deliverance of the plot; the outstanding performance by the cast, especially Jake Gyllenhaal's highly appraised performance as the troubled, awkward, rather mentally-disturbed yet intelligent Donnie Darko; the intriguing, mysterious, and various characters that support and contribute to the plot, etc.; I couldn't agree more with all that. I thought it was a really great direction by Richard Kelly and that he delivered a one-of-a-kind, quite never-seen-before original plot, and of course he succeeds in provoking our thoughts and emotions. The problem is the movie was, for me, just too difficult to comprehend without seeking answers on the internet. In fact, I'm starting to wonder whether there is anyone, anybody in this world, who could fully grasp the whole plot at first look without asking questions?

Personally, I'm definitely going to see this movie again. By the end of the movie, all these questions abruptly appeared in my head that I had trouble myself understanding which part I actually wanted to know about first. How come he dies? How come this time the jet engine fell back into his room and he didn't escape while he's seen all that? As explained in one of the chapters, the Manipulated Dead, when they wake up, may bring with them the sensations and feelings in the dreams, so why didn't he try to save himself if he'd seen what was gonna happen? Why was he laughing that night before the jet engine fell into his room? What's this all about, actually? And more of that. But it was all before I read that website that gave me answers (I forgot exactly what website), even though I'm still curious about it, which is why I'm gonna watch it again.

It's because the story isn't explained in the movie, so you must really focus and listen and watch. Like, they're letting us think for ourselves. They're letting us feed from the chronological scenes ourselves and form a so-called hypothesis of our own. And the chapters of the time travel book so little exposed to us don't actually help my understanding much, I must say. Yeah, it's those kind of movies. Remember Inception? Yeah, imagine watching it without all those detailed explanations and descriptions of how inception is done and how you get in a dream and so forth -that's how it would feel like to watch Donnie Darko. Hell, even with all that Inception is still confusing, let alone without it? Yes, fellas, understanding Donnie Darko, to me, was as hard as that.

What I liked about the movie was that it was original, and I've never seen one like this before. Okay, so basically the whole story developed out of the incident of the artifact (jet engine fallen into Donnie's room) that had to be returned into the "Primary Universe", but the whole plot itself, deriving from that, provokes a sense of curiosity and interest in us to watch further into the movie; all that philosophy of time travel thing that Donnie was keen to know about and which he kept asking about to one of his teachers, and how he struggles to relate all this with the facts of his daily life and stuff. At one point it's a really weird, awkward, eery, creepy movie, you know, with all its characters and plots, but at the same time, I must say those stand as its qualities, the qualities that sell, the magic that works.

Can I tell you one other thing I loved about the movie? Jake Gyllenhaal. Yep, I loved his performance as Donnie Darko. I mean, I've heard he's received much critical acclaim for this role, but when I finally got to see it for myself, I really, really, loved it a lot. He totally brings out the dark side and the good side of Donnie Darko..., and he's really cute when he's saying these smart stuff and acting like a somewhat jerk... and that look those eyes give you, I shudder to even think of it (both in a pleasant way and in a creepy way). I especially loved when he talks to Gretchen about the antiseptics thing in that scene where he asks her out. This may be me subjectively speaking, since I'm a huge fan of Jake Gyllenhaal myself, but the critics praise have proven otherwise. This is one of the best performances of him I've yet to see *I haven't seen Brokeback Mountain :(

Cellar door.

That's it for now.