So: Donnie Darko (the director's cut version). The reason? It's from the same guy who did Southland Tales, which I absolutely loathed (so much so I did not one but two posts on it), so he wanted to see if another - somewhat better respected - film by the same person would come off better.
Short version: Yup.
Longer version...well, here goes.
Donnie Darko is the tale of teenaged Donnie, a troubled boy who hears voices and frequently finds himself waking up from slumber far from his house at places like cliffside roads or golf courses. Highly intelligent but confused and fearful, he struggles to fit in and understand the world around him, and to relate to family, teachers, and classmates. After one of his apparent sleepwalking episodes saves his life when an airplane engine mysteriously crashes through his bedroom where he otherwise would've been sleeping, he starts experiencing ever stranger visions, and investigates the words of Frank, a man in a creepy rabbit costume, who has told him the world will end in 28 days. This leads him to finally form some connections, but also to begin to understand a theory of time travel that suggests the apocalyptic prophecy might be true.
Donnie Darko lays a lot on the shoulders of Jake Gyllenhaal, playing the title character, and he knocks it out of the park. His Donnie is unsettling and erratic, confused and chaotic, but also sympathetic - a very difficult balance but one that Gyllenhaal manages exceptionally well. It's a very complex role and he captures the equal parts brilliance and confusion at the heart of the character - his search for answers and lack of understanding of his own identity, but also his certainty in rejecting answers he finds false. The film depends on developing an investment in Donnie's story and a willingness to follow it to its conclusion. The story can seem to jump around or experience somewhat jarring shifts, but Gyllenhaal keeps our attention quite well.
The supporting cast...no one does a bad job acting, but I'm not sure that all of them come off the way the film intended, necessarily. In particular there's an English teacher that I think I was supposed to like a lot more than I did - she seems downright mean at times in scenes that I think were supposed to come off as funny. Just a personal reaction, I guess. Other characters sometimes seem to change in characterization a bit from time to time, particularly Donnie's parents, who vary between warm acceptance of their son and almost a fear of him in ways that don't entirely seem natural. In some scenes I really liked them, in others I felt like they were robots. Not sure if that was intended or just some awkward acting or direction there. Most of the students in the film seemed to be totally awful people, particularly the two guys Donnie hangs out with most, who are just absolutely horrible and insulting to other people for no reason whatsoever. But there's a lot of good character work, too. Patrick Swayze as an overenthusiastic motivational speaker (with some secrets) puts on a great performance, and Donnie's girlfriend Gretchen helped a lot with bringing me into the story emotionally and providing both support and contrast to Donnie's viewpoint. Donnie's therapist, too, brings a lot of interesting discussion to the plot and I ended up liking her attempts to help Donnie figure out who he was and what he believed (with one exception). Overall, it's a good cast, just uneven at times.
I think the film carries a little bloat, honestly - there are some scenes that just don't feel necessary, mostly ones that happen with other characters without Donnie present and that don't relate to Donnie's storyline itself. There are points where we start following, say, the English teacher or Donnie's mom and don't really learn anything necessary, or that couldn't have been conveyed in a way more directly linked to our main character. It throws the film off a bit and breaks up its style - it relies a lot on Donnie's particular quirks and his unique viewpoint, so when we suddenly see things from another character's point of view, it's hard to quite know what to think. We suddenly move from the realm of the uncertain to that of the certain, and oddly, that doesn't work as well for the film.
Some of the film's attempts at humor or characterization didn't thrill me. There's a lot of, as I mentioned above, people just plain being awful to other people for no apparent reason, which doesn't really do a lot to make you want to see the world saved. There's a lot of references made for the sake of making references - you know the kind I mean - and one spectacularly unnecessary scene in the therapists' office that I could've done without mixed in with a bunch of better and much more interesting ones that I thought were great. The film is good but I think could've used a bit of a trim or a second look at things occasionally.
From a technical perspective, there's nothing to complain about. The film is shot well, very clear, and makes great use of lighting to set the mood and change perceptions when needed. Effects are handled well and aren't overdone - the film resists the urge to go for particularly massive sequences even when it has an excuse, and has an understated sort of tone to it that does just enough to get its point across. Yes, some of it looks a bit dated now, but not in any serious way - a benefit of it not pushing hard on an effects angle to begin with.
I'll be honest, this is still a pretty opaque film, just not near as much as Southland Tales. But it shows a real willingness to heavily explore its version of time travel and time theory, and in ways where things do start to "click" by the film's end. It lays out concepts and then eventually demonstrates how they are fulfilled. I felt, at the end of the story, that I at least had a theory as to what was happening and why things were happening, and a general understanding of the plot, the ending, and what it all meant. I don't know for sure that my concept absolutely matches the intended concept - maybe it does, maybe it doesn't - but I felt like I had grasped the film overall. Much better than I can say for several other films Al's given me! And it was genuinely interesting, which is also a change of pace.
And heck, it's a film that actually makes pretty good use of title cards - it sets them up as chapter headers from a book on time travel Donnie is given, and relates information that is actually important to the plot rather than just being self-important.
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| Also, dance numbers! Okay, just one or two. |
The theory presented, too, works well and is used nicely by the film. Much of what else I have to say may qualify as spoilers, so if you haven't seen this yet and don't want them, there's your warning.
The theory used here is basically a variant of the many worlds theory, where a "tangent" universe is created when something causes a change. In this concept, however, the tangent universe is inherently unstable and will come to a dramatic end that, if I was interpreting properly, would kill off the prime universe as well. A "living receiver" (i.e. "chosen one") is tasked with restoring the timeline to normal, and "manipulated dead" (i.e. "time ghosts") serve as his guide. In this case, the receiver is Donnie and the dead is Frank (as well as possibly some other characters, though that's less clear).
The film effectively uses its mythos and builds nicely to its ending, which ties together a lot of loose ends and shows how the theory works together well. Effectively, with minimal spoilers, Donnie's actions establish the very thing that will save him, allowing him to play his role in the film's ending. The film, I think, could still have been a little clearer with what Donnie actually does do in the end - it would be easy, if you missed one line earlier in the film, to mistake what happens as an accident and Donnie as a passive observer, or to mistake which precise action he takes that's "necessary" (which I think I did at first). Don't want to go into more detail than that as this one's quite good and I'd rather you watch it and form your own opinions, but there you go.
Look - Donnie Darko does have some flaws, and this director's cut at least could probably have used a little trim here and a little tweak there, but by and large, it's a very good film. A good lead, an interesting concept, and some fascinating work with theory combine to make one of the better films I've watched recently. I feel like it still has some revelations or some deeper understanding I could reach, but I don't feel confused - I feel like it was more than clear enough for me but still deep enough to be interesting and have more to explore. Something to delve into again but that didn't leave me wanting, if that makes any sense.
What the heck happened with Southland Tales, right?
So yes - I really liked Donnie Darko, flaws aside, and this is one case where I'm pretty grateful Al picked a film for me. It's an interesting story and - while I can only comment on this version - is told well, in a way that kept me going and searching for what was going to happen and how things would all come together. There are ways it could be stronger, but nothing crippling to the film. It's a strange tale, but worth the time. So - thanks, Al. Maybe I'll take back that lump of coal I got you for your present.
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