This is one of those movies that you don't know what it's about until it's nearly over. Donnie, a disturbed teenager in 1988, is having problems. He's being forced to go to a therapist, who likes using hypnotherapy (and how we learn a lot of his thinking), he's takin pills which help prevent his hallucinations--and he has a friend named Frank, who is a giant rabbit (or rather, a man in a skeletal rabbit costume). Frank tells Donnie what to do--such as demolishing his school's plumbing or setting fire to the local author's (who is also a child pornographer) house. Then, there's part of an airplanee that fell out of nowhere and crashed into his bedroom. Luckily, he wasn't there at the time. The first forty minutes of this film are rough--the pacing is odd, the characters unlikeable--but if you make it over the hump and continue watching it all starts to make sense and becomes very engaging. Donnie Darko, in his craziness, has a real purpose. And it has something to do with time travel. Recommended.
This is one of those movies that you don't know what it's about until it's nearly over. Donnie, a disturbed teenager in 1988, is having problems. He's being forced to go to a therapist, who likes using hypnotherapy (and how we learn a lot of his thinking), he's takin pills which help prevent his hallucinations--and he has a friend named Frank, who is a giant rabbit (or rather, a man in a skeletal rabbit costume). Frank tells Donnie what to do--such as demolishing his school's plumbing or setting fire to the local author's (who is also a child pornographer) house. Then, there's part of an airplanee that fell out of nowhere and crashed into his bedroom. Luckily, he wasn't there at the time. The first forty minutes of this film are rough--the pacing is odd, the characters unlikeable--but if you make it over the hump and continue watching it all starts to make sense and becomes very engaging. Donnie Darko, in his craziness, has a real purpose. And it has something to do with time travel. Recommended.
