Critical Review of the Film

             This is according to Richard Kelly's debut film, Donnie Darko, where the grim telling of an apocalyptic end comes from visions of a six foot tall walking bunny rabbit who visits our protagonist, Donnie. The rabbit, "Frank, " warns him of the impending doom that face his family, his girlfriend and the rest of humanity as the month of October draws to a close. It is a stunning revelation as when the end comes and the undoing of the world is near all that will be left is Donnie, and he will be left as all creatures in the wild are left, to "die alone." Darko is a story about fate, and the little power we actually have over our own lives and the events that transpire around us. In a more fanatical religious sense it is a story about Divine Intervention and the belief that although there is no proof of his existence, no manifestations in a burning bush or anything like that, that a higher power does indeed exist. It is a fair attempt at film making and for a first time director he scores a largely popular indie hit, it's got the makings of a cult film written all over it were it a little less mainstream. So how did I end up writing this cultural review on this film? Well I've heard about it from some people, Hopper mentioned it to me and I've been seeing it in the video store but never really had an extreme urge to watch it. It was over this weekend while I was searching for Huston's film adaptation of The Dead (which I could not find anywhere) that, while in the D's, I spied Darko. "I"ll give it a whirl," I thought to myself. It is an impressive piece of film making given its rather small independent status and budget and it really is a showcase for what young aspiring directors can do with the new digital technology and home computer based editing systems. Where the film lacks is that it is trying to go way to many places at once. It seems that Kelly, like most new directors given an all-star cast and a widely original story, get so over excited with the job at hand that the movie twists and turns a million times, tries to go a million places.