” DONNIE DARKO “…Film Review

PEDRO’S WORLD OF CINEMA

” DONNIE DARKO ”

USA 2001

we begin in a sunlit,well-manicured upper middleclass suburb like all bad american TV…kids on bikes,dining rooms,mom,pop+3 children….but things immediately go sideways,cussing between siblings,sleepwalking,visions…thankfully the mom+pop are loving yet bewildered by their son donnie’s behaviour,they provide a therapist(possibly the greatest expositional device in film) who hypnotises Donnie and reveals
his state of mind…he sees and talks to a giant,creepy rabbit who tells him the world is going to end on october 30(halloween)…so far so FRIDAY13th
but the writer/director Richard Kelly seems to have bigger plans…this is not so much a mental health picture than a time travel one…there are many wonderful surprising moments in the film such as the first kiss between D and his girlfriend,after she’s just run out of class in tears,the scream of anguish by drew barrymore’s teacher after she’s been sacked(the greatest “faaark” in cinema history?) patrick swayze’s motivational guru’s bust for child porn,the dancing troupe’s(”failure is not an option”)innapropriate dance moves that sexualize young girls…all these side characters are note perfect+fully integrated in kelly’s momentum-gathering script…

but the ker-ching moment for me was the old crone miss Sparrow whispering to D “that all living things die alone”, and D discovers that she was the author of “a philosophy of time travel”….so the themes of death,fate,choice* loom large in this and if you can take on board time travel the ending is truly gut wrenching….no plot spoilers

jake gyllenhaal has the sad,soulful eyes+puppy dog face to make his character likeable while still acting occasionally like a jerk,an uncreditted maggie,his sister plays his sister,always helps the verisimilatude…his girlfriend probably should have been cast by christine ricci…the use of slo-mo+sped up film at start i thought was just stock in trade tricks but when the time-travel theme kicks in it reinforces the elasticity…clever

spent 2 hours after this film tossing+turning,chewing over dialogue+characters,impossible to sleep…a fascinating big-idea film,and re—californian high school imbroglio? my ten year old son watched this + it opened up some good conversations about hallucinations,imagination+mental health+oh and dad did his best with the physics of the time-travel stuff..

5 ***** outta 5 (for the surprising arc+theme)

so what do you think?

*when D+ girlfriend go to cinema to watch evil dead,the other film playing is scorcese’s last temptation of christ…another film where the protagonist has a final choice about his fate….hmmmmmmmmm clever

ok, seen unfortunately thru the prism of the VT slaughter name 3 things that resonate from film???