Troubled teen Donnie Darko (Jake Gyllenhaal) receives a disturbing vision that the world will end in 28 days. With the help of various characters, including a 6 foot tall rabbit named Frank, he is drawn into an alarming series of events that may or may not be a product of his growing insanity.
As I was watching this, the same thought kept popping into my head: WHY THE HELL AM I WATCHING THIS? I knew why (how can you resist Jake's puppy dog eyes?), but I honestly wonder why I didn't turn off the movie when I got into "WTF" territory. I think whoever wrote the screenplay watched Harvey one too many times because really, you can't come up with the whole 6 foot tall rabbit thing without a little inspiration. I also felt a little gypped by the ending. Don't get me wrong. I liked Donnie Darko. I just thought it was really, really, really weird.
My Rating: ****
This is very quickly moving up my list of all-time-overrated films. I think there's a very thin line between profound surrealism and weird for the sake of weird.
ReplyDeleteThen again, when compared to Kelly's THE BOX, this thing is freakin' poetic.
So you are hating this but liking it? How can this get 4 stars??? ;) Donnie Darko is the bomb!
ReplyDeleteDonnie Darko is the bomb! It's easily one of the best teen films ever. Jake Gyllenhaal is fantastic...and the soundtrack is awesome!!
ReplyDeleteDon't listen to Hatter (and everyone else in the entire world) - THE BOX is excellent! Such a great creepy atmostphere!
ReplyDeleteThen again, if you were put off by the weirdness of DONNIE, perhaps it's not for you.
I do agree with Hatter on the over-rated point however - this movie is good, but ultimately nothing all that special (aside from the Smurf sexual organs scene, which is pure gold)