"Why Are You Wearing That Stupid Man Suit?"

Continuing the theme of last week (still broke), I give you another cult classic. But instead of focusing on reviewing, I think this time I’m going to give you a little thought-provoking (thinking a little highly of myself, yes?) discussion. And there is no better movie to do that with than one of my all-time favorites, Donnie Darko.

Set in the painfully average town of Middlesex in 1988, this film centers around young Donnie Darko, played by Jake Gyllenhaal. Donnie is what you would call troubled, having been diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic with a history of violence, although even he himself cannot articulate the strange things he experiences. One night a jet engine falls through the roof of the Darko house, and lands in Donnie’s bedroom. But because Donnie was sleepwalking on the front lawn, he wasn’t crushed by the engine. Instead, he is visited by Frank, a six-foot rabbit, who informs Donnie that the world will end in 28 days, 6 hours, 42 minutes and 12 seconds. Frank continues to appear to Donnie, and suggests he commit devious acts, like breaking a water main at school and vandalizing the mascot, setting a local celebrity’s house on fire and stealing a gun from his parents’ closet. Meanwhile, Donnie befriends a new student at school, named Gretchen (played by Jena Malone), the only person who seems to understand him. Through his visions Donnie also sees things resembling physically manifestations of time travel, something he recognizes when reading a book on the subject by a local teacher, whom the neighborhood kids cruelly call Grandma Death. As the film progresses, and the 28 days tick away, it seems that it isn’t so much that Donnie is insane, but that the world around him is going mad.

After watching this film for the first time, I felt like my head was going to explode. This is a normal response, I think, because there are so many different layers to it. Is Donnie crazy, or is he really experiencing time travel in an alternate reality? Is Frank real? There is the argument that what happens in Middlesex does actually occur, and Donnie’s schizophrenia make him the only one sensitive enough to realize it. There is also the thought that Donnie is crazy, and that what he sees and does are not actually real. I fall somewhere in-between the two. There is definitely something odd happening in Middlesex, which the citizens realize at the end of the movie as if they’ve all woken up from a bad dream. But Donnie’s perspective cannot be trusted because he’s mentally unstable, and also because he doesn’t really question the validity of his visions. For instance, it’s more than a coincidence that Frank the rabbit looks just like Donnie’s sister’s boyfriend. Shouldn’t he have noticed that at some point? I think Donnie’s visions are a way for him to deal with the stress of his life in a way he can understand, and the movie can be seen as his thought process before he dies from the falling jet engine. What do you guys (those who have seen it) think?

If you haven’t seen it (or, what have you been doing with your life?!) I would suggest watching this movie with someone who has already seen it, or finding someone who’s seen it after you watch it. This is because you will have an almost uncontrollable urge to discuss it, and won’t be able to do much else until you do. It forces you to think way outside your comfort zone (at least for me… if you usually ponder metaphysical philosophy, more power to you), and you’ll probably have to watch it more than once to get all the details. I’ve seen it several times and I still realize something new every time I watch it. This, in my opinion, makes it a great movie, and one I would highly recommend to anyone.

A disheartening tidbit to end with: Apparently they’re making a sequel to Donnie Darko, called S. Darko, which is based on the adventures of Donnie's younger sister, Samantha. At first I was terribly excited. But then I read up on it and realized it’s going to suck like few sequels have sucked before: all of the actors are teenagers with little experience (Jackson Rathbone of Twilight? Ed Westwick of Gossip Girl? COULD THEY FIND NO ONE ELSE?), Richard Kelly, the director/writer of the original story, has nothing to do with the project, and oh, yeah… it’s going straight to video. Apparently humanity can create working hearts out plastic and put a man on the moon, but we can’t make movie sequels that aren’t complete crap.