nan | 楠木

    Every once in a while I get to see a film that’s unconventional by my standards―― conventional meaning that the story is straight forward, there are elements of common entertainment like action scenes or thrills ‘n’ chills, or it’s a typical stereotyped film that falls easily within a given genre. Not that conventional means cheesy or unoriginal―― not at all, since like I said all I do is probably watch conventional films.

    But there are films that do not fall in my definition of "conventional". Donnie Darko, starring Jake Gyllenhaal, is such a film.

    This is another film that deals with the time travelling theme often portrayed in sci-fis before. Donnie is a high-school kid who has pyschological problems―― he has to see a pyshciatrist and also has to take medication, and every now and then he goes for a little sleep walking. Not a bad thing to walk in your sleep, we soon find out, since a jet engine crashes through his family’s house and right through his room at night, but Donnie escapes death since he was out on another sleep walk. The strange thing is they could never find the plane that the engine belonged to.

    Then Donnie starts experiencing hallucinations―― he has an imaginary friend called Frank dressed up in a giant bunny costume, who asks him to do acts of vandalism like flooding the school or burning down a guy’s (Patrick Swayze, of Dirty Dancing, in a interesting little role) house. Frank’s orders get increasingly violent, while Donnie receives a count down to the end of the world (morning after Halloween, in fact).

    Frank also teaches Donnie on time travelling. Actually Frank is no other than Donnie’s sister’s boyfriend, only he’s from the future and we see that he’s been shot in the eye. And with the help of a bizarre book written by Grandma Death, ―― a old lady of 101 who likes to walk back and forth from the middle of the road to the mail-box――, and the school physics teacher Donnie apparantly understands the basics of time travelling: all he needs, in theory, is a worm hole and a vessel…

    But anyway parallel to this development Donnie also befriends the new girl at school, Gretchen Ross (played by the charming charming Jena Malone, oh isn’t she nice?). They both have a liking for each other and falling in love was only a matter of time.

    Then Halloween comes. The parents are out, and Donnie and his sister holds a party. Donnie’s sister’s boyfriend Frank goes missing, while Donnie and Gretchen go visit Grandma Death. They get into trouble with two punks from there school, Gretchen fells down in the middle of the road, and Frank’s car which happens to drive by runs over her. Gretchen dies, and Donnie in a fit of anger shots Frank in the eye and kills him.

    The countdown to the end of the world is near. Donnie realizes what he must do, and he takes Gretchen’s body with him in his car. In the morning he sees a jet plane get sucked up in a worm hole, and a jet engine falls into the hole…

    The time goes back to 28 days before, the day when the engine fell in his house. Donnie is asleep in the bed, thus killed by the jet engine. The family grieves his death, and Gretchen who didn’t know him then, shows her compassion to the family…

    I wanted to write down the story, but I see I’ve done a really bad job. My narration gets nowhere close to the actual feeling the film gives me, you can say it tells just about the basics of the story, but it doesn’t touch you. Anyway what the film meant, I guess, was that Donnie’s not getting killed got things messed up, and he reaized that in order to make things all right he has to die, killed by the engine. He uses the engine as his vessel for the time travel through the worm hole, and everybody else is happy… Yet the audience can’t help feeling a bit down… Brave sacrifice.

    What really works for this film is Jake Gyllenhaal’s performance. He is Donnie. He can be a bright kid, but there are times when he does show a dark and somewhat twisted side, and I can’t help feeling sad for him. He’s just a troubled kid growing up, and there are some moments when you sincerly just hope everything works out for him.

    The cast boosts an interesting ensemble, with some of the bigger names in insignificant roles, such as the aforementioned Patrick Swayze, as well as Drew Barrymore who has a curious role as Donnie’s English teacher. The film has a very moody feel with the help from a nice 80s soundtrack (the film is set in 1988), and visually it’s also good to watch. All in all a good film that offers a lot of thinking room long after you finished watching.