Movie Review: Donnie Darko (2001)

Twenty-eight days…six hours…forty-two minutes…twelve seconds, that is when the world will end. – Movie Review: Donnie Darko (2001)

The Plot

“American Psycho” meets “The butterfly effect” set in a suburban, dark neighborhood. This story is about a troubled teenager, Donnie (Jake Gyllenhaal), hallucinating a horrific, six foot tall man called Frank, dressed in a bunny rabbit costume who is manipulating him to commit a series of crimes.

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The main idea that the film possesses is that many people of our world are disillusioned and cynical, and that idea can be found within many characters in the film.

Donnie is an incredibly likeable and sardonic character who is seen throughout the course of the film forgetting to take his medication. He is seeing a psychotherapist who believes that hypnosis is the key to unlocking someone’s mind and believes that it could help Donnie. She soon realizes that Donnie is not the normal teenager with issues that she presumed him to be, as Donnie unveils all about his nocturnal adventures. One of these adventures turns out to be fateful as Donnie escapes a horrific accident where a jet engine falls out of sky right onto his room, but Donnie is led out of the house by the demonic bunny man, miraculously saving his life.

During the course of the film, as Donnie counts down days till the end of the world. He becomes fascinated by the theory of wormholes. The philosophy of time travel and finds out that he has a lot in common with grandma death, a 100 year old woman in his neighborhood who makes endless trips to her mailbox throughout the day, waiting for a letter that never comes.

Bottom Line

This movie will make you contemplate “déjà vu” and “time travel” in a completely different light. This cinematic masterpiece with its ending so ambiguous will leave you rethinking your entire existence. It is one of those movies that still have the viewers scratching their heads, craving for some kind of closure.

The dreams in which I’m dying
Are the best I’ve ever had…