What comes to mind when you think of a modern adolescent coming of age movie? Is it alienation, rebellion, probably first love? In Donnie Darko (2001), writer/director Richard Kelly employs all of these familiar themes; then he adds humor, witty satire, time travel, apocalyptic prophecy, and a bi-pedal, six foot tall nightmare of a rabbit, who instructs the young and confused Donnie Darko (Jake Gyllenhaal) through haunting visions and an eerie voice that runs through Donnie‘s head. Ok, so maybe this sounds like a plotline lifted straight from the WB's primetime lineup (minus the wit), but Kelly uses these seemingly absurd, unrelated elements to create an amazingly complex and clever story that Buffy could only dream of.
Donnie Darko begins with a panoramic, morning shot of a mountain range, setting the stage for a film as wide open as the landscape. The camera pans around, focusing slowly on a distant figure, lying unconscious in the middle of a mountain road. The silence is broken only by soft, sporadic blue notes, echoing from a piano. As the camera draws closer, the figure rises, giving the audience their first glimpse of Donnie Darko. With a chuckling smirk, he picks up his bicycle and heads back home. Immediately, Kelly forces the question, “Why the hell is this kid lying in the middle of road?” This is the first question that the viewer is forced to ponder and it is definitely not the last.
Kelly wastes no time establishing the film’s dark tone. Not even five minutes into the movie, an eerie voice instructs Donnie to “Wake up.” In a trance, he rises from bed and follows the voice out of his house and to a golf course. He finds the above mentioned rabbit, Frank, who slowly says, “Twenty-eight days, six hours, forty-two minutes, twelve seconds. That is when the world will end." Donnie's only response is, "Why?" He and the audience will spend the rest of the movie trying to find the answer. And, to make things more complicated, a jet engine (which can’t be accounted for) crashes through Donnie's room while he is asleep on the golf course. When he arrives home, he is faced with yet another question: why did Frank lead him out of his room and save his life?
The question you are asking now is, “How can you possibly call this a coming of age story.” The answer is exactly what makes the film great. If he stuck to the sci-fi/horror genre, Kelly could have made a very good film considering his knack for creating surreal, haunting situations, his knowledge of the still camera shots and slow fades that make these situations come alive, and his talent for weaving these fantastic elements together. But instead of making a sci-fi film that uses the human story to unfold extraordinary events, he uses these events to emphasize and expand on the human element of the movie. Even though almost every sci-fi movie attempts to explore some strain of the human experience, Donnie Darko has what most of these films lack: true human emotion.
This emotion comes alive in Gyllenhaal’s performance as Donnie. He captures the full spectrum of typical teenage feelings, ranging from playful to extremely confrontational, while also developing the character's highly disturbed nature. Also, the chemistry between Donnie and his family is undeniable (especially considering that his older sister is played by Gyllenhaal’s real-life older sister, Maggie Gyllenhaal). But the true chemistry in the film is between Donnie and his female interest, Gretchen (Jena Malone). The scenes where they first meet perfectly portray the awkwardness of an adolescent boy-girl relationship. This awkwardness gives way to a beautiful story of two troubled lives who find out what it is like not to be alone. The most lackluster performance is from the best known actor in the movie, Drew Barrymore. She tries way too hard to be the intelligent, but hip English teacher, forcing her lines and straining to push the character past her usual bubbly persona. Her best contribution to the film is definitely her work as executive producer.
The other factor that allows this movie to break through the sci-fi genre is humor. I am not talking about the usual, “break-the-suspense” humor that gets one chuckle at most. While laughs occur sporadically throughout the film, the funniest moments are between Donnie and his two dimwitted friends. They provide a blazingly blatant, juvenile humor, including a conversation about the reproductive tendencies of Smurfs and their play-by-play commentary on Grandma Death, a frightening old woman who walks back and forth to her mailbox all day long. A more satirical humor is found in the characters of Jim Cunningham (Patrick Swayze), an over-the-top self-help guru, and Kitty Farmer (Beth Grant), the overtly Christian gym teacher who is his devout follower. But don't get the wrong idea. While some scenes will make you laugh out loud, others will be sure to haunt your nightmares for weeks to come.
All of these characters influence Donnie’s path leading up to the twenty-eighth day. As he connects these influences and events together so does the viewer; but then you have to ask, is Donnie really crazy? Are the forces acting on Donnie real or do they only exist in his head, and does it really matter one way or the other? These are just some of the questions that are left after the greatest ending since 12 Monkeys. So if you need a movie to be wrapped up in a neat box, giving you the perception that something is hidden just so you can feel special because you think you figured it out before anyone else, then this isn’t your movie. But if you don’t mind a film that actually makes you think and gives you a different take each time you watch it, then Donnie Darko is a must-see.
