More Donnie Darko Analysis

I watched Donnie Darko again last night and decided to look up some further analysis of the movie.

I found a few websites with reviews and plot/timeline breakdowns which were almost notable, but they seemed to lack something. Then I came across Mark Joseph Young’s analysis. Reading through it made for an interesting lesson in time travel, but it wasn’t until the second to last paragraph (jump to Conclusions and scroll down) that I found what I was truly looking for (some semi-spoilers):

Is it a time travel story? …it is entirely possible that this is not a portrayal of real events but of madness. It is possible that Donnie Darko imagines much of what happens, or does some of it and imagines other parts, that no jet engine hits his house and in the end after shooting someone he collapses into a catatonic state and believes he died four weeks before. It is as possible that this is a modern telling of Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge (Ambrose Bierce), a story in which Donnie sees the means of his death break through the roof of his room and in the instant before it crushes him in his bed dreams his escape and all that would flow from it, only to have it end abruptly as the rope tightens around his neck.

Throughout the rest of the article, Young had treated the movie as any other time travel sci-fi, but in this one paragraph he provides as an alternate interpretation, he summed up my fears and views on the substance of the flick. If you know me well, I’m sure you’ve heard me allude numerous times to “the time I died.” Hell, I’ve even talked about it here on the weblog. One of my biggest fears concern concerns “waking up” from this life-dream I’m having moments before my death, the one I died years ago now. I suppose that sometimes, yes, I do live a life of fear. Most of the time, though, I’m able to deny that fear — those quasi-beliefs — and live my “normal” life in this tangent universe. I know I’m bad at explaining this sort of thing. (It’s why I write for free, instead of for fee.) Read Tyler Neylon’s post If you are insane for a better grip on what I’m saying.

The official Donnie Darko website is also a great resource on the movie, but requires quite a bit of time and a soundcard to appreciate (kids, don’t try this at work). It also forced me to realize that Donnie’s address is the same as my address was when I had my incident. I’ll just listen to “The Killing Moon” and forget that detail, now…

I also want to note that Mary McDonnell’s performance as Donnie’s mother in this movie was excellent. I’ll throw my vote for 2001’s Best Supporting Actress into the next wormhole I see.

Also, no matter how wretched she looks in any of her IMDb photos, Maggie Gyllenhaal is really hot when she tells Donnie to “Suck a fuck” sitting at the dinner table.

If anyone has $1.99 to trash, I sure wouldn’t mind an ebook copy of that Ambrose Bierce story, nor would I refuse a used paperback.