The premise of the 2001 film Donnie Darko was, and to some extent still is, mysterious and intriguing. It begins during the presidential election of 1988, during which Donnie Darko, a teenager, sleepwalks out of his house. He is faced with a scary rabbit named Frank who warns him that the world will end in twenty eight days. Following this, Donnie avoids a crashing jet engine that destroys his bedroom. The film is made complicated by the introduction of a number of psychological themes, time travel, wormholes, and Donnie’s eventual death. Though it is considered a cult classic now, it was a box-office flop and otherwise disregarded at the time of its release. However, it is due to this that the importance of the film cannot be understated.
While it is a coming of age story, it also relies on elements of horror and science fiction. Though those elements could seem overwhelming when telling a story about a teenager, they do not take away from the humanity of the characters. The cast of Donnie Darko is exceptionally realistic, with teenagers being presented as awkward, troubled, sometimes even unlikeable but not polished and archetypical. This can be seen in Donnie’s behavior, in which he refuses to accept a teacher’s belief system that every emotion is balanced on a spectrum of love and fear (Cheang, 2018). Donnie finds this too simple, and it is the fact that the film was discussed and reviewed as being complicated and mysterious that made it so popular despite the poor theatrical release. Donnie Darko’s greatest achievement is likely in the fact that despite all the chances for the film to be promoted having been thwarted, it still reached its intended audience and intriguided them. In terms of art and innovation, it is also a prime example of how independent films that may have been made on a low-budget became well-regarded due to strong acting, plot, and visuals. To this day, it continues to be celebrated for it’s human presentation of complex characters and interest generated by a strange and captivating plot.
Reference
Cheang, K. Y. (2018). The unexpected humanity of Donnie Darko. Yale Daily News.