Online-Inquirer

It’s been 20 years since Richard Kelly’s admirable and ambitious directorial debut Donnie Darko was released to an unsuspecting cinema audience with its blend of teenage angst and paranoid schizophrenia it has become a cult movie for anyone familiar with the 1980s zeitgeist.

In his breakout performance Jake Gyllenhaal plays Donnie Darko a psychologically disturbed high-school student who sleep walks and has visions of a demonic rabbit called Frank, who tells him that the world will end in 28 days, 6 hours, 42 minutes and 12 seconds.  Although he is prone to aggressive and bizarre behaviour Donnie is still a typical teenager with conservative Republican parents who are supportive and concerned for his well-being.  In a freakishly random aviation accident the engine of a jet which has mysteriously vanished hits the roof of the Darko’s house taking out Donnie’s bedroom although luckily due to his sleep walking he has wound up on one of the greens at the local golf course; at this point the story flashes back 28 days charting the lead up to Armageddon.

Despite regularly seeing a psychiatrist (Katherine Ross) and undergoing hypnosis Donnie’s visions of Frank get more frequent requesting him to carry out random acts of violence, inspired by Graham Greene’s short story “The Destructors” a favourite of his liberal English teacher (Drew Barrymore); firstly he floods the school leaving an axe in the head of the bronze statue of the school’s mascot “The Mongrel” and then, exhibiting his revulsion for phonies a quality he shares with Holden Caulfield the hero of J. D. Salinger’s “The Catcher in the Rye”, he sets fire to the mansion of a local motivational speaker (Patrick Swayze) exposing him as a fraud and a sexual deviant.

Donnie starts dating the new girl in school Gretchen (Jena Malone) who had to relocate and change her identity when her emotionally disturbed father stabbed her mother; she empathises with Donnie and provides comfort for his growing anxiety.  In an attempt to avoid Frank’s prediction Donnie starts to investigate the possibility of altering the future and his science teacher (Noah Wyle) explains Stephen Hawking’s wormhole theory that could lead to a portal to a parallel universe, he also gives him a book called “The Philosophy of Time-Travel” by a former teacher at the school, Roberta Sparrow who now lives a hermit like existence and is known by the local kids as “Grandma Death” because each day she goes to check her post box and stands in the way of oncoming traffic.

At this point the film shifts from psychological drama to Sci-Fi fantasy as Donnie becomes absorbed with Roberta Sparrow’s book and with the assistance of Frank seemingly masters the ability to bend time.  In the film’s climatic sequence on the final day of the world Donnie’s mother and younger sister are flying so she can take part in a dance competition.  Donnie and his elder sister (Maggie Gyllenhaal) decide to throw a Halloween party during which he sneaks out with Gretchen to explore Roberta Sparrow’s cellar.  They are jumped by two of the school’s thugs and held at knife point, in the struggle Gretchen is knocked into the middle of the road and her unconscious body is run over by a car being driven by someone wearing Frank’s bunny suit.

Donnie realises the devastating effect his actions have had on those he loves and turns back time so that he is in his room when the jet engine hits.  It’s suggested that his mother and younger sister are on the plane as it plummets out of the sky but I am unsure how undoing Donnie’s actions entirely avoids their fate but they are all present when his body is taken from the house, which seems to suggest that perhaps it has all just been one big paranoid delusion. Gretchen passes by and has to ask a neighbour who it is on the stretcher so it seems that Donnie has sacrificed himself in order to save her.

Richard Kelly is clearly influenced by the films of David Lynch, especially Blue Velvet and genre bending films like Being John Malkovich which play with the conventions of linear narrative.  The Blu-ray marks a radical improvement in the picture quality which is presented in full 1080p 2.35:1 transfer, unfortunately the 5.1 DTS-HD mix whilst great at showcasing the 80s music especially Gary Jules hit cover of the Tears For Fears song “Mad World”, has left the dialogue comparatively low in the mix.

It’s fair to say that Donnie Darko is a superb apprentice piece but that the overly convoluted plot gets somewhat muddled even in the revised 2004 Director’s cut.  It amuses me that the idea behind the 6ft bunny Frank seems to be undoubtedly inspired by the James Stewart enduring black farce Harvey, the invisible friend of Elwood P. Drood; although Richard Kelly claims he wrote the script long before he ever saw the 1950s classic.  We have yet to see anything as dazzlingly original from him so as time passes Donnie Darko may well be remembered as his flawed masterpiece.