Reel Time: Donnie Darko

Directed & Written by: Richard Kelly

Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Jena Malone, James Duval, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Drew Barrymore

Summary:

A smart and witty but delusional 16 year old boy named Donnie (Gyllenhaal) is lucky enough to be alive after a strange plane crashes into his room. Strangely fate or rather a voice inside his head brought him outside of his house.  What he was lucky to miss, however will come back to haunt him. Even though he begins a relationship with the new girl (Malone), Donnie is plagued with Frank's (Duval) words. Frank is a six-foot evil bunny who tells Donnie to commit various acts of vandalism. Everything he tells him to do has meaning, because Frank knows the world will end on Halloween. In this bizarre tale set in 1988 Virginia, Donnie must face hardships in order to save everyone he loves.

Review:

Donnie Darko-- what site shouldn't do a review on this movie? Yes, I am aware of the cult statis is has taken since being released on DVD, but I also know many people haven't seen it. I'll admit the first time I saw it, I had no idea what had happened. I enjoyed the film but was left feeling incomplete, as if I missed something entirely. Even with that said, I still thought the film was brilliant. Some of the lines in this movie made you contemplate on your life. Am I living how I should? Am I brave enough? It just makes you value your life. Donnie was such an easy character to connect with. You felt his pain and confusion. You wanted to help him. Gyllenhaal was remarkable as the rest of the cast was. However, what I enjoyed most was afterwards looking up all the information online. There are so many websites dedicated to this movie.  Everything that wasn't said in the movie made sense. I couldn't wait to watch it again-- which I did. This brilliant tale of love, sacrifice, and pain is defiantly something I would recommend. I would suggest though to watch it once, soak all that you can in, read up some information on the internet, and re-watch. You will be thrilled you did. I'd say for the first time watching it  6.5/10 & with the second time 9/10. 

--J.