Talk about connecting broken links of a long, long chain in such a meticulous manner, so as to baffle the viewer out of his skin - and doing that consistently for a hundred and twenty minutes. Being at the edge of your seat, anticipating the next scene, failing every time, not giving up yet, and at the end of it all, you feel like you still haven't understood it completely. This is what Richard Kelly does to you with Donnie Darko. I feel lucky to be one of his victims.
Donnie (Donald Darko), a schizophrenic young man, makes friends with Frank - an imaginary and XXL size bunny. Imagine being told by someone that this world will come to an end in 28 days:6hours:42 minutes:12 seconds from now. Scary, isn't it? That too so precisely scary! This is what Frank tells Donnie. After a lot of thought, this is what I make of the movie -
A science-fiction thriller with bits of hilarious comedy (Especially when these characters discuss the sex-life of Smurfs) spilled here and there. Richard Kelly has definitely succeeded in giving the viewers something fresh and original to experience. Ever heard of 'Time-Travel'? Without getting into the physics of it, it is a travel into the future or the past (however unlikely a time-travel into the past might sound). Donnie's house gets ground to pieces by an engine of an airplane, which falls right on Donnie's room. Donnie does not die. Frank, the hallucination, sleep-walks him away a little earlier than the crash and that is when he tells Donnie about the '28 days' secret.
Following this, the bunny makes Donnie do a few criminal deeds as well. Frank was probably a messenger in disguise. He makes Donnie do all sinful things but then, at the end of the day, it was he who got Donnie introduced to Time-travel and save the world. I really think Donnie had acquired the power to time-travel, simply because he has been shown reading a lot about it in the movie. Especially, Roberta Sparrow's "The Philosophy of Time Travel". I'll tell you more, keep reading.
"I hope that when the world comes to an end, I can breathe a sigh of relief, because there will be so much to look forward to." True to the core, nay? There is an inherent excitement, a curiosity in all of us to get to know what happens next! - The "What if?" characteristic that we possess. Donnie answers her college professor in a similar way when she asks him about his views on a passage which is being discussed in the classroom. Donnie aptly puts it - Destruction is a form of Creation. The reason behind tearing the world apart might not be negative at all, after all. Chances are that you might just want to change things and see what happens.
He falls for this cute, young lady in his class - Gretchen Ross. "Well look, um... uh... you wanna go with me? ", is what he asks her. "Where do you wanna go?", she asks. "No, I mean like GO with me, like you know... like, that's what we call it here... going together... ", he says. "Sure", she pauses for a moment, and walks away.
Donnie is an intelligent boy. Well, he's just logical. He tries to make sense of whatever is presented to him, or whatever he presents. Quite a few times he gets into arguments with people who have known to have "been there, done that". Allow me an illustration, please-
Jim Cunningham, the do-gooder celebrity shown in the movie, is addressing an assembly and showing how people can have better control over their lives if they control their fear and spread love. He was trying to profess that eliminating fear can solve all the problems. Now whoever has a question can come up to the microphone and ask him. After a while, comes Donnie and asks "How much are they paying you to be here today?," the audience burst into laughter.
"Are you telling us this stuff so we can buy your book? Because I gotta tell you, if you are, that was some of the worst advice I've ever heard. Do you want your sister to lose weight? Tell her to get off the couch, stop eating Twinkies, and maybe go out for field hockey. You know what? No one ever knows what they want to be when they grow up. It takes a little while to find that out. Right, Jim? And you… yeah, you..." (to a fat kid, who told Jim that he was fed-up of getting beaten-up by someone). "... Sick of some jerk shoving your head down the toilet? Well you know what, maybe you should lift some weights or take a karate lesson. And the next time he tries to do it, you kick him in the balls.”
While making all this sense, he is made to do things which he shouldn’t be doing. Causing harm all over, he loses Gretchen too in the process. Now is when the confusion arrives. The story can go two ways from here. At least I think it can go two ways, there might be more too. One – Donnie had been dreaming till yet. Two – Donnie had acquired the power to “Time-Travel”.
The scenes rush back to the point where Donnie is sleeping in his room. The engine is again hurled toward Donnie’s house. But this time Donnie does not sleep-walk away. He just smiles and stays because he knows he will save the world by doing so. Super-hero? Who sacrificed his life for the world? Maybe.
The next morning, Donnie’s loved ones are devastated by his death – crying and getting consoled. There comes Gretchen, cycling her way through, and stops in front of Donnie’s house. “Hey. What's going on?,” she asks Donnie’s neighbour, David.
David: Horrible accident. My neighbour... got killed.
Gretchen: What happened?
David: Got smashed by a jet engine.
Gretchen: What was his name?
David: Donnie. Donnie Darko.
Gretchen: Hmm.
David: I feel bad for his family.
Gretchen: Yeah.
David: Did you know him?
Gretchen: No.
It might need more than a single watch. At least I will have to watch it once more, to get the complete hang of it. Maybe then, I’d be able to write a less confusing post on it. Meanwhile, the essence of the story has been aptly captured by Gary Jules in this song, sung by R.E.M. for this movie-
“All around me are familiar faces
Worn out places, worn out faces
Bright and early for their daily races
Going nowhere, going nowhere
And their tears are filling up their glasses
No expression, no expression
Hide my head I want to drown my sorrow
No tommorow, no tommorow
And I find it kind of funny
I find it kind of sad
The dreams in which I'm dying
Are the best I've ever had
I find it hard to tell you
'Cos I find it hard to take
When people run in circles
It's a very, very
Mad World”
