so after years of being egged on by my brother, i finally saw “donnie darko” last night. what a trip!
the film is a rich mix of psychological thriller, science fiction, comedy and drama. it doesn’t have a single dull moment. jake gyllenhaal is a paranoid schizophrenic teenager who begins to have regular encounters with an imaginary friend named frank. frank happens to be a really tall man with a really deep, darth vader like voice, in a really ugly-ass, disturbing-looking bunny suit! frank tells donnie that the world will end in 28 days, 6 hours, 42 minutes and 12 seconds. as donnie sleepwalks to the golf course to meet with frank and heed his ominous warning, a mysterious jet engine lands on top of his house and crashes into his room. the meeting with frank saves his life.
the countdown to the end of the world begins and frank’s appearances continue. he instructs donnie on the possibilities of time travel. if destiny is pre-ordained then wouldn’t it be possible to see everyone’s inevitable path into the future? and wouldn’t that factor in free will if u were witnessing this phenomenon from inside god’s channel? donnie starts seeing wormholes, shortcuts in time and space, tunnels that connect present and future. real people and events in donnie’s life as well as frank’s overarching, self-fulfilling sway over his mind, seem to bend him in random yet inexorable ways toward a fixed future – the end of the world.
as things become increasingly ugly in his life and people he cares about start getting hurt, donnie begins to understand what he must do. he must shut down the tangent universe that came into existence when he escaped death. he must close that loop in order to save the primary universe and all those he loves. by sacrificing himself, he reverses the irreversible march of time and all those involved wake up to the universe at it was meant to be with some vague, residual knowledge of their trip back home. way cool film.
