Movie reviews: Donnie Darko

Donnie Darko is one of my favorite movies of all time. For those of you who do not know the movie, Donnie Darko is a drama/science fiction movie from 2001. It is set in a small town in Virginia, in the late eighties (which makes for a really great soundtrack, with tons of better eighties songs). The story is all about Donnie Darko, a nice but weird (or slightly disturbed) boy who sleepwalks constantly and has an imaginary friend named Frank.

The movie starts with a jet engine falling from a commercial aircraft into Donnie’s bedroom. Luckily, he avoids being killed by it because he obeyed the voice in his head telling him to sleepwalk outside of his room. The voice is of Frank, his imaginary friend who dresses in a rabbit costume. Frank tells him that the world will end in 28 days, 6 hours, 42 minutes and 12 seconds. Do you think this movie is weird already? You are right, but that does not make it any less fun to watch.

The entire movie is a little strange, with reality and magical realism going hand in hand. The whole time you are watching you are never quite sure whether something is really happening or if it is all just in Donnie’s head. I think that is also part of the appeal of this movie, at least it is for me. It keeps you wondering about whether what you are seeing is true or not and also whether this really matters.

Besides telling him to sleep walk, Frank also instructs Donnie to flood the high school, and burn down the house of the motivational speaker at the school, who turns out to be a pedophile. Luckily, it is not all bad crimes and psychotic voices, because Donnie gets himself a girlfriend named Gretchen. He does not have much time to be happy and enjoy being in love, because one night she is run over and killed by a car. And guess who is driving the car that kills his girlfriend? No other than “imaginary friend” Frank, who is dressed in a rabbit costume for Halloween.

It is a good thing that Donnie has learned all about time travel. He takes Gretchen’s body and drives to a hillside where a time portal is opening in the sky. Donnie’s mother and sister experience turbulence on their return flight home; one of the airplane’s jet engines detaches and falls. The engine travels through the time portal to 28 days earlier, crashes into Donnie’s bedroom just like at the beginning of the movie.

This time Donnie chooses to stay in bed instead. The movie ends on the morning after the jet engine accident. Donnie is dead and Gretchen is very much alive and rides by Donnie’s house on her bicycle. Never having met Donnie, she talks with a neighborhood kid about the sad accident. That sure is one way of showing you love your girlfriend.