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Richard Kelly's Donnie Darko (2001) is one of the most enigmatic and fascinating films of recent years. Its appeal lies not only in its scathing observations of middle-American life in the late 1980s but in its philosophical explorations of reality and illusion, life and death, fate and free will, time and time travel, and the various temptations that come with the opportunity to have a second chance. Donnie Darko is a stirring examination of these complex themes that ends with rather nihilistic - or perhaps optimistic - questions: what would you be willing to sacrifice for others and, if you sacrificed yourself, how much would their lives really change? The film presents myriad open-ended questions, which is a risky endeavour that could lead to a dissatisfying film experience. But in Donnie Darko, the ambiguities are key elements that help establish its cryptic and enticing atmosphere and are crucial to its meaning.1
Mind Games
Donnie Darko begins with Donnie (Jake Gyllenhaal) lying in the middle of a lonely mountainous road with ominous clouds on the horizon. He is wearing pyjamas and it is clear that he has accidentally wandered into this situation - he has been sleepwalking. Back at his home there is a message on the kitchen fridge, 'Where is Donnie?' This essentially existential question drives the rest of the film as the audience - and Donnie himself - never comes to know or understand where Donnie 'is', both in time and in mind.
The film then cuts to Donnie and his family at the dinner table, wrangling over politics. The issue of who to vote for, Bush or Dukakis, illustrates the tensions between left- and right-wing politics that underpins much of the film. The audience also learns that the Darko family is pretty typical, characterized by narky yet affectionate sniping: Donnie's older sister Elizabeth (Maggie Gyllenhaal) is keen to rebel, his younger sister Samantha (Daveigh Chase) remains bemused, and his parents (Mary McDonnell and Holmes Osborne) are concerned about the fate of their children. Donnie's petulant response to his mother, 'Why don't you start taking the goddamn pills? ... bitch...' makes it clear that Donnie is a frustrated young man. He is subdued by medication, pressured by his parents' worries, and constrained by...