The Wake

If I told you one of the best movies of 2001 was about a teenager with visions of a grotesque man-sized rabbit, you might begin to question my judgment in films. Donnie Darko tells the strange tale of an ’80s youth (Jake Gyllenhaal) who returns home from a bout of sleepwalking to find that a jet engine has landed in his bedroom. Had our protagonist not been out chatting with the above-mentioned demonic bunny, the falling hunk of metal would have crushed him. Why has he been saved? What purpose does this strange and not-at-all-cute animal-man have for our hero? Is that really Patrick Swayze playing a self-help guru?

While it tanked at the box-office, Donnie Darko was about as original and hypnotically weird as movies were meant to be. Big chunks of it didn’t make sense and you could argue about what happened in it for hours. Those are just a couple reasons why the film became such a massive success when Fox released it on DVD.

To cash in on this unexpected success, and of course to free the further artistic vision of the film’s creators, they made a director’s cut. With enhanced special effects, a pricier soundtrack and 20 minutes of footage restored, it saw limited release in theaters last year. On February 15 Donnie Darko: Director’s Cut was released on DVD.

It shouldn’t have been.

Don’t get me wrong. The addition of music by INXS to any movie, especially one set in the 1980s, was reason enough to make me giddy. Most of the added footage was beneficial as well, as it clarified and strengthened relationships between the characters. But along with those bonuses there was too much explanation of what was going on. And in a movie that got popular for being weird and confusing, that’s definitely not a good thing.

What’s worse was the execution of these explanations. Most were accomplished through superimposing pages of a philosophy book on time travel and fate over the onscreen action. If this sounds outrageously hokey to you then I applaud your perceptiveness. To be fair, the book was involved in the plot of the movie. But maybe instead of spending money to play “Never Tear Us Apart” the producers could have paid Jake Gyllenhaal to read the pages to us. Oh, to be in kindergarten again …

If you hated Donnie Darko because you demand your movies to make sense, the director’s cut will solve this. And you still won’t like the movie.

On the other hand, if you loved Donnie Darko or have yet to see it and want to get the most out of the film, rent or buy the original DVD. Watch the movie and then go to special features. First, check out the book Jake Gyllenhaal won’t be reading to you as all eight or so pages are included on the DVD. Your next stop, the deleted scenes section, contains virtually all the restored footage of the director’s cut. In addition, you’ll get some interesting and useful optional commentary from director Richard Kelly. Finally, the original Web site is presented as an interactive menu, giving further insights into the film. When you’ve done all that, watch the original version of the movie again. You’ll understand everything the director’s cut was meant to clarify and will feel better about it because you worked harder doing it. Now throw in some INXS for me and congratulate yourself on a job well done.