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Donnie Darko on DVD (2001)

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Average rating: 76%
1112291020718
3.5
from 11,629 members
 
Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal | Drew Barrymore | Noah Wyle | Patrick Swayze
Director: Richard Kelly
Studio: METRODOME DISTRIBUTION
Run time: 108 mins
Certificate: 15
User collections: little known gems | Starting my collection | My Current Top 20 | 5 ESSENTIALS (OR DESERT ISLAND DISCS) | My favourite movies | Ohh, my head hurts. | Good but not THAT great | Favourites | 50 Films I Recommened You See Before You Die | Best FREAKIN films EVR!!!
Genres: Drama | Sci-Fi/Fantasy | Thriller
Languages: English
Released: 31/03/2003
Also Available on: Also Available on: BLU-RAY

Brief synopsis of Donnie Darko

Writer-director Richard Kelly's bold debut film is a social satire, a dark comedy, a science fiction time-travelling fantasy, and a suburban nightmare about an extremely intelligent, depressive, self-destructive, narcoleptic, gun-toting, sex-crazed, teenaged arsonist: Donnie Darko (Jake Gyllenhaal). DONNIE DARKO is not your typical teen comedy. But, like GHOST WORLD and RUSHMORE, it uses the trappings of the teen comedy as the entry point for a subversive and trenchant (and also wonderfully entertaining) look at American life. The difference between those films and DONNIE DARKO is that Donnie is an unlikely hero who just might save the world.
It's October 1988, in the Virginia suburb of Middlesex. When Frank, a grotesque giant bunny (possibly imaginary), leads Donnie out of his house minutes before a plane smashes through his roof, he not only saves Donnie's life but also warns Donnie that the world is about to end. Over the next few weeks, Donnie falls in love with Gretchen (Jena Malone) and tries to figure out what his life means. Kelly's film perfectly captures the unease that is quietly scratching under the surface of suburban late 1980s life. Gyllenhaal leads an exceptional cast, bringing Kelly's twisted but humane vision to life. An exceptional performance is given by Mary McDonnell (PASSION FISH) as Donnie's mother.

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Donnie Darko - Feature Disc
October 1988 and small town USA is about to witness the end of the world. It's home to Donnie Darko, a brillia... 		Sign up
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Critics Reviews

Rating of 4 stars out of 5 Radio Times

This powerfully affecting science-fiction meditation on parallel universes, time travel and paranoid schizophrenia is a stunningly crafted and hypnotic fantasy drama that opens up intriguing new genre avenues. Completely unclassifiable, director Richard Kelly's intellectually demanding look at surreal destiny has a potent style, dark charm and strange tone all its own. Donnie (a haunting Jake Gyllenhaal) is an introverted student in therapy who keeps having visions of a 6ft-tall rabbit named Frank that tells him the end of the world is imminent and forces him to commit acts of vandalism while sleepwalking. It's during one of Donnie's somnambulistic bouts that a jet engine crashes through the roof of the Darko home, sparking a series of even weirder events. This cosmic parable is part teen-alienation saga, part social satire, with cult appeal stamped over every unpredictable and profoundly wrought frame. The director's cut, released in 2004, has additional material that has divided critics. Some feel that adding to the coherence of the narrative has compromised the teasing mystery of the film, while others have welcomed the chance to see the film as Kelly intended. But in whatever format it is screened, this is a totally original vision that deserves an audience .

Chicago Sun

"...Richard Kelly, the first-time writer-director, is obviously talented....He sees his characters freshly and clearly, and never reduces them to formulas. In Jake Gyllenhaal, he finds an actor able to suggest an intriguing kind of disturbance..."

USA Today

"...This home life/high school satire set in someone's twilight zone grabs you and doesn't let go. It's also one of the best cast films of the last decade..."

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Members Reviews

Reviews Voted Most Helpful

Rated - 0 stars

A customer from NEWARK , 07/10/2004

I'm obviously the only person in the world that thought this was a hyped up pile of ****! ( given a choice i'd describe this film using a lot of derogatory expletives, but then it would be censored wouldn't it?)

  44 out of 56 people found this review helpful
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Rated - 5 starsWonderfully ambitious movie

Aman1 from Middlesex , 10/08/2004

So much has been said about this film already, but after seeing it I felt compelled to add my thoughts on the movie.

It is ridiculously ambitious, and this is part of what makes this movie so charming. From talk of time travel to presidential propaganda, this film is filled with social commentary and cinematic brilliance. The film has far more memorable scenes than in most films, from the hilarious Smurf conversation to Donnie’s hypnotherapy sessions.

Jake Gyllenhaal plays Donnie brilliantly, portraying Donnie with self-depreciatory humour, a real sense of vulnerability and astute intelligence. His thoughts on God are a definite highlight.

Patrick Swayze is fantastically hilarious in his role as a saviour from fear figure, and adds a lot of colour to the movie. Noah Wyle and Drew Barrymore also provide enjoyable cameos. However, it is the overbearing dance-leader and backward thinking teacher who stirs the emotion in most viewers. She seems to represent Conservative America, and Donnie wonderfully exposes her simplicity when she gives her ‘teaching’ on love.

Donnie’s relationship with the new girl in town is refreshingly complex and understated, and adds something to the film when it so easily could have taken away from it.

Remarkable stuff.

  39 out of 41 people found this review helpful
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Rated - 5 starsSuprising!

Phil from Midlands , 04/11/2003

I wasn't expecting much really - it was a 'hollywood blockbuster' and there's not many that really enthral.. but what a shock!

I was most impressed with the cleverness of the plot, which kept you guessing and even made you think when it finished, but everything else, from the style to the acting, was great too.

A good film for everyone into good films.

  45 out of 68 people found this review helpful
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Rated - 2 starsproblematic but very clever.....

A customer from Dundee , 14/11/2004

Much has been made of the need to'explain' this film. It is certainly open to interpretation and is multi-layered but is essentially an intellectual conundrum.

I don't want to give too much away as that would spoil the trip,(and it is a trip!!) but a basic understanding (!) of Quantum Mechanics is probably needed. Watch the film and read the Philosophy of Time Travel (not a real book but an internet invention created by the director to help the average viewer).

If you do that, the film will make more 'sense' but this is in essence the problem I had with the film. It is all very clever and brilliantly done but at the end of the film I didn't understand it. It needed this extra information detailed above for me to make any sense of the film. I think any film ultimately fails if the director needs to put information out on the web explaining what it is that he was trying to do !!

Again I don't want to spoil the film but suffice to say shocking things happen to Donnie which left me unmoved. I was, at no time engaged by the character or the film. It is all so cold and intellectual that you spend all your time intellectually working out the plot, and no time at all emotionally engaging with the characters.

So in short this films Cult status is assured and probably well deserved. I know there are internet forums dedicated to this film where the geekier members of our global community can find space to promulgate their increasingly bizzare 'explainations'. It has become, like 'The Matrix' a film that if you say you didn't enjoy you can rest assured that the critcism that you 'didn't get it' ie. are too stoopid !! will be levelled at you. I just want something different from the films I watch ......

Clever, certainly but a little to smartarse for me !!

  30 out of 35 people found this review helpful
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Most Recent Reviews

Rated - 2 starsPoor sound, no subtitles

Drew Bolton from eastbourne , 27/06/2005

I'd love to have been able to watch this film - but with no subtitles and appalling sound (VERY LOUD music and very quiet speech) I simply couldn't follow it.

My fault for having a cheap TV, no doubt, but still ruined the film for me.

  1 out of 1 person found this review helpful
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Rated - 5 starsWATCH THE DIRECTOR'S COMMENTARY

Ben g from Bournemouth , 21/09/2004

If you can stand listening to the actors and director talking over the film, everything will be explained.

It is one of the best films I have ever seen, I would say it is my favourite film at the moment. But when you find out it cost about 5 million dollars, the director is about 25 and most people worked on the film for free it makes it better. The start with echo and the bunnymen and the end with Gary Jules is amazing!

A cult classic, flawless acting, original script and for real fans (or geeks?) check out the website, maybe before you check the commentary.

  1 out of 1 person found this review helpful
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