Donnie Darko and Donnie Darko Director's Cut: Part 2

Last week I talked about the fairly good, if overly confusing, movie Donnie Darko.  The biggest complaint I had was that the movie did almost nothing to clue the audience in to what was actually happening in the plot or why it was important.  The Director's Cut not only completely solves this problem, it does so without losing the feeling of mystery that the theatrical version had.  The Director's Cut also takes the characters that were so good in the theatrical version and makes them even better while it cryptically reveals why everybody is acting so quirky and unusual.

The biggest strength of Donnie Darko Director's Cut is that, while it reveals enough information to figure everything out, it reveals it slowly and deliberately.  On top of that, it still leaves enough out that the audience has to draw their own conclusions about specifics, however they now have the tools to do so.  Plus, this movie doesn't skimp on the importance: in an early scene Gretchen says to Donnie "Donnie Darko?   What kind of a name is that?  It sounds like some sort of super hero."  To which Donnie replies, "What makes you think I'm not?"  In the theatrical version this scene just comes off as harmless flirting because we never know what is actually going on, however in the Director's Cut, especially when watching it for a second time, the audience may chuckle a bit as they get the joke.

I know the article isn't very long this week, but honestly there isn't too much to say about Donnie Darko Director's Cut that wasn't already said in the review of the theatrical release.  The movies are very similar to each other, the Director's Cut just tells us the plot, and unfortunately I don't want to talk about that too much so as to not spoil it for anyone.  Needless to say, Donnie Darko Director's Cut is an extremely good movie with quite a complex and very compelling story.  For any fans of cerebral thrillers and science fiction movies I highly recommend Donnie Darko Director's Cut.

Verdict,
9.5/10