Donnie Darko is an incredibly deep and multi-layered film about life,
death, self sacrifice, and the nature of time and reality.
Yes it has a deep philosophical meaning, and it points at the superficiality of everyday
society. Full of
irony and dark humour, it has a lot of emotional depth and intelligence and in places is genuinely creepy.
At an even deeper level its about the psychic and about the experience of schizophrenia.
The real question is at the end, does Donnie make the right decision?, at one level he does not, at another he sacrifices himself to save his
girlfriend and Frank - the rabbit - the boy, plus maybe his
sister and mother.
Here'
s another question, why does Frank save Donnie in the first place? - saving Donnie starts the cycle that kills Frank, and then saves him again when Donnie sacrifices himself? Yeah Franks a seriously odd character.
In all not a film for the stupid or the shallow, but otherwise wonderful.