Donnie Darko (2001)

“Donnie Darko”, directed by Richard Kelly; is a fascinating cult coming-of-age film that calls to be experienced and solved many times. The plot is full of intriguing mental riddles that involve parallel realities and dreams, as well as feelings that transcend the definitions of “nostalgia” or “mystery”.

Above all, this film has a kind of flow like nothing I’ve ever experienced before. The magical tone sets in from the very first moment, when we see Donnie waking up (and Echo & The Bunnymen’s “The Killing Moon” starts playing); immediately, you get drawn into this ethereal vibe that the film has to offer.

This is the story of Donnie Darko (Jake Gyllenhaal), a teenage student who suffers from paranoid schizophrenia, a complex mental health condition which involves delusions and hallucinations, as well as a reduction on expressing feelings and loss of will to do things.

Donnie’s attitude is mysterious, intelligent, pleasant and sardonic at the same time. He sees a psychiatrist (Katharine Ross), who discovers that he has a terrifying nocturnal visitor who wears a diabolical rabbit costume, Donnie calls him “Frank”. This mysterious visitor drives him on sleepwalking expeditions.

We also get to know Donnie and the relationships with his environment, it becomes evident on multiple occasions that his thoughts and conjectures of life are gifted with a great intelligence uncorrupted by irony.

Every second of the film refers to a moment already past or to another to come, each action of Donnie Darko has an end, sometimes evident and sometimes not so much, each conversation with each of the characters has a meaning and is necessary for our own perception and construction of the film.

Donnie begins hallucinating with the end of the world, he also becomes fascinated with the “universe black holes” essays of the legendary physicist Stephen Hawking, and finally discovers a mysterious book called “The Philosophy of Time Travel”.

I couldn’t leave the great soundtrack unmentioned, full of fascinating post-punk and new wave tracks by bands like Joy Division, Echo And the Bunnymen, Tears For Fears, and The Church, among others.

Besides having that wonderful adolescent nostalgia and that warm feeling of loneliness, this is a film that raises many questions, it made me feel like a total stranger behind this intense, mysterious and mad world we live in.

by Octavio Carbajal González