Donnie Darko (2001) Still magnificent all these (time travelling) years later
“28 days. 6 hours. 42 minutes. 12 seconds. That is when the world will end”
First things last, Donnie Darko was American filmmaker Richard Kelly’s debut feature length film and so (a) as I have a fetish for debut films, should you be reading this as a budding filmmaker please send me a copy of your first feature film as I’d love to see it and (b) GOOD LUCK! No pressure then! You only have this magnificent debut achievement lurking in the background like an albatross (or should that be a giant bunny rabbit?) and voted by Empire magazine as the second greatest independent film of all time behind Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs.
Before I ramble through the reasons why I’ve adored this film for nearly a quarter of a century, here are the opening 12 or so minutes of a film I couldn’t possibly recommend to you enough even with all the time travel available in the world:
Rumbles of thunder greet the minimal production credits which grow louder through the continuing white on black opening credits before the faint sounds of birdsong and a moving camera open the film on a mountainside overlooking a clear and bright morning. As director Kelly moves his camera from the calm and clear view in the distance and to the left we now see a body in the middle of the road and as we move nearer, a discarded bicycle at the side of the road. The faint stirrings of Michael Andrew’s music soundtrack commences with a beautiful solo piano piece as the body in the road, namely the titular “Donnie Darko” (Jake Gyllenhaal) slowly rises from the tarmac looking dazed and confused and dressed in his pyjamas, presumed sleepwalking. Rising fully to his feet and with his back to the camera, Kelly’s camera again demonstrates a clear and cloudless sky in the distance, not a hint of the earlier rumbles of thunder, and as Donnie turns 45 degrees to his left he begins laughing to himself as “DONNIE DARKO” is displayed in large font in the centre of the screen before a shard of sunlight pierces the title card and Donnie begins cycling home to the magnificent “The Killing Moon” by Echo and The Bunnymen.
Wiping sleep from his eyes, we follow Donnie’s descent from the mountainside road on his bicycle and through neighbourhood streets advertising the coming Halloween season and two power walkers enjoying their early morning exercise. We cut to Donnie’s father “Eddie Darko” (Holmes Osborne) tidying the front garden of the house with a leaf blower he turns playfully, laughing uproariously as he does so and somewhat in slow motion, on his eldest daughter “Elizabeth Darko” (Maggie Gyllenhaal) as she walks through the front garden before we cut back to Donnie dumping his bicycle at the rear entrance of the house. We now see his youngest sister “Samantha Darko” (Daveigh Chase) bouncing joyously on a trampoline before the camera moves to the family matriarch “Rose Darko” (Mary McDonnell) relaxing on a sun lounger reading Stephen King’s “It”, a glass of wine at hand! This Darko familial portrait has been soundtracked throughout by a continuing use of “The Killing Moon” and which ends perfectly and presciently with the lyrics “Fate, up against your will. Through the thick and thin. He will wait until, you give yourself to him” as Donnie finally enters the house, into the kitchen and opens a refrigerator with a “Where is Donnie?” scrawled on a small whiteboard on the front.
We now cut to a family evening meal and Elizabeth announcing her intention to vote for Michael Dukakis in the upcoming US Election and much to the amusement of her parents sitting at opposite ends of the small family dining table. Donnie is clearly bored with the topic of conversation and chides his sister for her Harvard ambitions, her humble job and her express intention to wait until her 30’s to “squeeze one out”. Samantha innocently asks at what age she will be able to do likewise, giving Donnie the opportunity to air a particularly bad taste joke that sets in motion a continuing verbal spat with his older sister sitting directly opposite him at the dinner table. As Elizabeth continues to overreact, Donnie playfully chides her once more with “A little hostile there!” before going in for the kill with “Maybe you should be the one in therapy, then Mum and Dad can pay a therapist $200 an hour to listen to you to know your thoughts so we don’t have to”. Here director Kelly (in league with editors Sam Bauer and Eric Strand) cleverly cuts between the dismay shared between the parents at either end of the table before Elizabeth retaliates to Donnie’s cutting remarks and announces to the table his big secret: Donnie has stopped taking his prescribed medication. “You’re such a fuck-ass” he exclaims angrily as Elizabeth explodes with laughter at being called such a term and all in front of their much, much younger sibling. As Eddie mimes placing his fingers in his ears to his youngest daughter his other two children continue a bitter and loud shouting match before Rose, appealing for calm, states “not at the dinner table”. A beat of silence ensues before Samantha asks innocently “What’s a fuck-ass”, causing Eddie to explode with laughter as he tries to eat his pizza!
Now we find Donnie reading a book in bed as Rose enters his bedroom and an angry back and forth commences between mother and son. “Where do you go at night?” Rose questions and “What happened to my son?” before with a resigned sigh “I don’t recognise this person today”. Donnie, angry after already asking his mother to leave his bedroom before the interrogation even began retorts “Then why don’t you take the goddamn pills?”. With that, Rose turns and slams his bedroom door on her way out as, after a beat, Donnie calls her a “bitch”, a comment she bitterly laments to Eddie soon after and, as is Eddie’s gentle way, he defuses the situation with a joke and a smile before we cut back to Donnie staring at his reflection in a small bathroom mirror, opening the cabinet behind it and taking his prescribed medication with a shake of the head and a sigh of resignation.
Fade to Black.
Eddie, unable to sleep turns on a small bedside table light before we next find him downstairs alone watching a TV debate between Presidential hopefuls Michael Dukakis and George Bush. As the Grandfather clock in the corner of the room chimes midnight, director Kelly zooms his camera into the clock face and “OCTOBER 2 1988” appears in the centre of the screen as a haunted, ghost-like voice announces “Wake Up”. From outside we see a light turned on in Donnie’s bedroom and now inside, Donnie rises to his feet, eyes closed and clearly sleepwalking again. As he leaves his bedroom, Kelly moves his camera upward to the American Flag adorning Donnie’s bedroom ceiling before we catch up with Donnie descending the stairs of the house and with eyes still closed, passing Eddie asleep in the chair as the TV flickers off screen. Grabbing something small from the front of the refrigerator (possibly a magnet?) and approaching the front door, Kelly again moves his camera upward and this time to a glass chandelier before the ghost-like voice announces “Come Closer”.
Closing the front door behind him, the ghost-like voice returns and implores him: “Closer” and as Donnie walks slowly from the house and along the streets of the neighbourhood, director Kelly now moves his camera to face Donnie walking towards the camera and with his eyes now open, a smile breaks out across his face as he sees what we now see: A giant bunny rabbit standing next to a red flag on a golf green! Staring at the human sized rabbit in the near distance, the ghost-like voice returns again: “28 days. 6 hours. 42 minutes. 12 seconds. That is when the world will end”. Donnie can only ask a faint “why?” as we cut back to the fizzing static sounds of the television, his father Eddie asleep in an armchair, his mother Rose asleep in bed and now Elizabeth, arriving home and closing the front door behind her with a contented sigh and huge smile we immediately cut back to the glass chandelier of earlier as a huge, earth shattering sound shakes the very foundations of the house, waking Eddie and Rose from their sleep and as Elizabeth slinks to the floor with her back to the front door in abject terror, father Eddie rushes in slow motion from the lounge.
Fade to Black.
We cut to piercing early morning sunshine and “Dr Fisher” (Arthur Taxier) and “Jim Cunningham” (Patrick Swayze) looking down in astonishment at Donnie fast asleep on a green at the golf course. As Jim laughs at Donnie and his “sleep golfing”, Donnie awakens holding a black marker pen and immediately notices the inscription on his arm in thick black ink “28:06:42:12” and after apologising and promising to never do this again, he stumbles away from the course. Returning home to a police cordon surrounding his home, Donnie fights his way through the police line before stopping and looking up as a huge aeroplane engine is slowly and carefully winched from his bedroom.
“It fell in your room!” Samantha announces with astonishment.
I was a very early adopter and initiate into the cult of Donnie Darko as I distinctly remember buying the DVD shortly after its initial release and even buying the Sunday Times newspaper just because they were giving away a free version and director’s cut of the film. I still have both of these DVD’s to this very day, a boast you won’t find in any other review of this magnificent film and almost as silly as a time travelling giant bunny rabbit foretelling the end of the world and my son taking these very DVD’s home with him this evening and hoping to persuade his mother to watch the film with him as I haven’t stopped talking about this damn film all day long!
I always knew Donnie Darko was a remarkable piece of filmmaking. I’ve watched it every couple of years for nigh on a quarter of a century but with a gap in my film watching schedule last evening and with sleep evading my grasp once more I reached for those trusty DVD copies and my goodness, this film continues to age magnificently.
Going against tradition and my strict credo to not spoil any film more than is necessary to paint a tempting moving picture for someone to then watch the entire movie for themselves, please indulge me as I ramble and I muse on my favourite scenes and I hope it will further whet your appetite to watch this debut film for yourself sometime, or of course treat yourself to a time travelling rewatch. I guess we should start our day by day countdown to the end of the world with a school bus framed at a sideways angle and to the tune of Tears for Fears “Head Over Heels” we explore school life in the late 1980’s of random bullying, cocaine snorting students, a girls dance routine and before our titular hero falls in love with “Gretchen Ross” (Jena Malone) all of this is shot in both slow motion AND fast forward! Then we have “Roberta Sparrow” (Patience Cleveland) or “Grandma Death” and her book “The Philosophy of Time Travel” as we quickly merge with the philosophy of the Smurfs and their asexuality and whilst we’re on a theme here, let’s keep going with Graham Greene’s book “The Destructors” or Donnie’s assertion that everything isn’t and can’t be linear or as binary as teacher “Kitty Farmer” (Beth Grant) and her “Lifeline Exercise” between good and evil. Be careful if you ask Donnie to participate in this particular exercise as he might suggest you inserting a book into a particularly tight and unpleasant place! Don’t let Donnie anywhere near a microphone either or he might, and with great prescience and joy, describe Kitty’s friend and motivational speaker “Jim Cunningham” (Patrick Swayze) as “the fucking anti-Christ”.
But this is a coming of age story at its heart and a story of revenge and redemption and of love conquering all and whilst Gretchen initially refuses Donnie’s advances for a first kiss (yes she wants it to be in a special place and also “some fat guy is staring at us”), our young lovers do indeed share that precious first kiss and a comeuppance is meted out to the anti-Christ and after “Cherita Chen” (Jolene Purdy) performs her beautiful interpretative dance we have the girls of “Sparkle Motion” dancing to “Notorious” by Duran Duran”, Gretchen arriving at the Halloween party to Joy Division and “Love Will Tear Us Apart” and then *someone* starts sobbing as “Mad World” by Tears for Fears (cover version in the film by Michael Andrews and Gary Jules) begins, and Cherita smiles, Donnie laughs and Frank wonders why he’s been drawing strange images of giant bunny rabbits all the time.
Nearly a quarter of a century later in our time travelling timeline, Jake Gyllenhaal is still a remarkable presence as a troubled late teenager held back in school and intellectually way ahead of his teachers, Holmes Osborne is a riot of explosive laughter as his father, Beth Grant’s reaction at the thunderous fall from grace of her hero is a sublime piece of acting, Jena Malone a perfect foil for Gyllenhaal’s Donnie and arguably the two most experienced members of the cast at the time, Drew Barrymore and Noah Wyle, grow with the film and support it perfectly where needed.
In short, I still love Donnie Darko and in 25 years time, I still will.
Thanks for reading. I hope this message in a bottle in The Matrix finds you well, prospering, and the right way up in an upside down world.
Whilst you’re here I may as well brag about the release of my trilogy of recently self-published books. Beautiful covers eh! As the title(s) would suggest, this is my life at the movies or at least from 1980 to 2024, and in volume 1 you’ll find 80 spoiler free appraisals of movies from debut filmmakers, 91 of the very best films appraised with love and absent of spoilers from 1990–2024 in volume 2, and in volume 3 you’ll find career “specials” on Paul Thomas Anderson and Quentin Tarantino together with the very best of the rest and another 87 spoiler free film reviews from 2001–2024.
All available in hardback and paperback and here are some handy links:
"A Life at the Movies Vol.1" - link to Amazon
"A Life at the Movies Vol.2" - link to Amazon
"A Life at the Movies Vol.3" - link to Amazon