Donnie Darko Essay

In Richard Kelly's controversial cult classic, Donnie Darko, the characters are isolated, confused and many are unable to cope with reality. The film presents a potentially disturbing portrait of human existence in terms of a dual reality. The interpersonal relationships displayed in the film are complex and present a disconcerting view on such relations between people. The characters in the film all share this inner confusion and inability to cope, and yet, on the outside, they are all different and appear to be handling their situation in different ways.

The main character in the film is Donnie Darko himself. Donnie does not fit into the middle class, conservative community that he has been bought up in. He appears to be the epitome of everything that the people of his community are not. Donnie feels isolated from this seeing himself as an outsider, highly intelligent and provocative at school. Donnie is alone and sometimes disoriented in his daily existence until he meets both Frank, a six foot man dressed in a Halloween rabbit costume, and
What needs to be determined is what is indeed true in this film; is Donnie psychologically impaired or is he simply living in an alternate reality. Donnie's mother Rose's denial of responsibility for the relationships within her family also delves into the realm of coping with reality or day to day living. Rose tends to live within her own reality, where she is in complete denial of Donnie's apparent condition. This is ironic, as while she is denying Donnie's mental stability in that he is having hallucinations and is apparently in his own little world, she is blocking out the real world in a similar way to Donnie himself. Another irony in the film between Rose and Donnie is that Rose is present on the aeroplane which ultimately causes her son's