Donnie Darko: Jake Gyllenhaal
Rose Darko: Mary McDonnell
Gretchen Ross: Jena Malone
Ms. Pomeroy: Drew Barrymore
Dr. Thurman: Katharine Ross
15 March 2003
by Jasmine Park
Since its release in 2001, Richard Kelly's directorial debut, Donnie Darko, has become something of a cult classic. It was the starting point in the careers of several up-and-coming indie stars, including Jake and Maggie Gyllenhaal and Jena Malone, and also included several notable has-beens: Katharine Ross, Patrick Swayze, and Mary McDonnell. While its bizarre fusion of various film tropes (80s teenage angst, sci-fi, horror) discouraged theater audiences from embracing it, its reputation by word-of-mouth has subsequently served it well on VHS and DVD release. What is it about this film that makes it so anomalous in spite of its recognizable influences? I suspect much of the credit is due to the nearly perfect circle the film's story makes without ever feeling pat. Unlike films like P.T. Anderson's Magnolia (1999), where interconnections among storylines and characters loom over the entire film like a bad omen, the eventual outcome of Donnie Darko feels as natural as a sudden realization of coincidence.
The film begins with Donnie waking up in his pajamas on a deserted mountain road where he has apparently biked in his sleep during the night. We quickly learn that Donnie belongs to a normal upper middle-class family and is a preternaturally intelligent but depressed teenager who routinely sleepwalks and is seeing a shrink (Katherine Ross). During his next sleepwalking episode, we learn how far his mental problems reach, when he meets a giant rabbit named Frank with a frighteningly skeletal face and warped voice who tells him that the world will end in three weeks. The next morning, Donnie awakens and return home to find his house surrounded by police and neighbors, and a gaping hole in the roof of the house over his bedroom. The hole has been left by an enormous unidentified object resembling a cockpit engine that had mysteriously fallen from the sky the night before. Although the family makes the local news and is forced to sleep in a hotel for several nights, the episode passes without incident.
Meanwhile, Donnie attends a co-ed prep school where his young, hippie-ish English teacher, Ms. Pomeroy (Drew Barrymore), urges the new girl in class, Gretchen (Jena Malone, in a performance of greater aplomb and assurance than in any of her subsequent films), to sit next to the boy she finds the cutest. Naturally, Gretchen chooses Donnie, and they start a sweet, fumbling relationship, at the same time that Donnie finds himself caught in a downward spiral as the days pass and the end of the world draws nearer. He continues to sleepwalk and obeys Frank as he encourages Donnie to commit several fateful crimes, including vandalizing his school and setting fire to the home of a local celebrity, Jim Cunningham, a personal development guru played by Swayze. The sci-fi aspect of the film starts creeping in when Donnie suddenly begins to see liquid channels flowing from the chests of various people around him, leading them to their destinations like prophecy made visible. At around the same time, he comes across a book entitled "The Philosophy of Time Travel," and the book and his visions inspire him to wonder whether time travel is possible, and whether he might be able to find a solution to it all before the world ends.
Jake Gyllenhaal does an admirably good job of carrying the film. Our sympathy for the titular character is integral to its effectiveness, and for the most part, Gyllenhaal manages to make Donnie's many contradictions credible. Donnie displays an intuitive intelligence when it comes to school; he's so clearly the kid who is smarter than everyone else but gets shitty grades because he doesn't care. At the same time, he possesses a nearly childlike desire to please when called to action. Gyllenhaal's acting falters in some of these encounters with Frank; one glimpses his slight uncertainty when required to play the disciple, contorting his face into an expression of conspiratorial evil. However, these moments of faltering aside, Gyllenhaal looks and acts the part of the young hero and manages to carry the movie convincingly through its eccentricities.
Donnie Darko offers many small pleasures, including a surprisingly mature, semi-ambiguous performance by Barrymore, and a genuinely sympathetic portrayal by Mary McDonnell as Donnie's mother. Donnie Darko defies the typical 80's and 90's characterizations of caring but clueless parents by giving Mrs. Darko real dimension, and McDonnell inhabits the role effortlessly, displaying a mother's unconditional love for her deeply troubled son; note her look of bristling incredulity when Donnie's shrink asks her whether Donnie has told her about Frank, "the giant bunny rabbit." The film has none of the arrogance that presumes that all minor characters are secondary to the pursuits of the hero; even as Donnie sets fire to Cunningham's mansion, the film contrasts his actions with a recital performance to a charmingly nostalgic Duran Duran track by his younger sister, who dances in a troupe with other girls aspiring to perform on Star Search.
The film contains many secrets that may or may not be explained by the end; one of its many admirable qualities is that its ending feels perfectly resolved, even while other mysteries linger. One such mystery seems almost fated to spawn a cult following - when Ms. Pomeroy is fired by the school and has a last conversation with Donnie, she leaves with the parting words "cellar door," explaining that it is one of the most beautiful phrases in the English language. In this way, the film self-consciously plays with its audience, yet still avoids coming off as pretentious. The final resolution manages to surprise while not feeling tacked on, which is a feat in itself.
Newmarket Films presents a film written and directed by Richard Kelly. Running time: 122 minutes. Rated R (for language, some drug use and violence).
Jake Gyllenhaal, Jena Malone, and
Frank the rabbit in Donnie Darko.
Jake Gyllenhaal and Drew Barrymore as Ms. Pomeroy.
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