2001 drama
Rating: 11/20
Plot: A possibly-schizophrenic teenager escapes death thanks to Harvey, falls in love, and then engages in various shenanigans including lollygagging, whimsy, malarkey, balderdash, gobbledygook, and kerfuffling. Harvey turns out to be a bad influence, he spots bubbles emerging from the rib cages of his family and friends, and he starts reading up on time travel.
I really kind of hate this movie, interesting since I watched it fourteen years ago and thought I liked it. But any movie you need to do this much extensive research to understand and then are completely unsatisfied when you get what might be answers is just not a movie for me. I mean, apparently you need to visit the website that director Richard Kelly created for this and read an imaginary book on time travel philosophy to fully grasp what is going on here, and as a guy who just likes to watching fucking movies, I don't have any interest in making that kind of commitment. I don't like the movie enough to do any of that anyway.
This movie at least ties the record for most Gyllenhaals in one movie.
I like Jake Gyllenhaal, and the guy's been on fire lately. Both he and his sister seem to gravitate toward these interesting, complex roles in these interesting, complex movies. Here, they're not exactly characters with a ton of depth. The boy Gyllenhaal character might fool you into thinking there's depth, but he's more a character constructed of Hollywood craziness cliches. Still, there's an intensity to the performance that makes the character memorable.
Frank, until he takes his costume rabbit head off at least, is a menacing presence, but he sort of becomes less menacing the more you see him. I think the giant rabbit is probably in the movie too much. And I love this bit of dialogue:
Boy Gyllenhaal: Why are you wearing that stupid bunny suit?
Frank: Why are you wearing that stupid man suit?
But you know what? That little conversation really has nothing to do with the rest of the movie. Seriously, most of what happens in this movie doesn't have to do with the rest of the movie. Things just kind of happen. There's self-help guru pedophilia, the perils of English teaching, some random movie bullies including a odd Seth "I like your boobs" Rogan. The romance, one of the few things in this movie that does seem to matter, never really gels. Donnie makes decisions that, I guess, tell the audience how deep those feelings are, but there's not much we get to see that makes it feel that way. Nothing resonates because nothing, in the end, really matters all that much.
Drew Barrymore is awful in this, and her character is idiotic. She's a movie teacher, very different from a real teacher. "Sit next to the boy you think is the cutest." What? She's so bad, but she needs to be there to remind me more of E.T. And her "fuuuuuuucccccckkkk" in this is epic.
Donnie Darko's got a little bit of style, an 80's grimy glaze with a soundtrack (Echo and the Bunnymen [Bunny! Get it?], Tears for Fears, Duran Duran, The Church, Joy Division), and, as long as you're willing to pay close enough attention, some neat recurrent details. But unless I'm missing a whole lot--and I will note that I very likely am--it just doesn't add up to much of anything.
No comments:
Post a Comment