"Donnie Darko" and "The Jacket"

A bunch of us went over to my friend Soul Beaver's place to have a freaky time-travel movie night. As the title of this post implies, we watched two movies: the Director's Cut of "Donnie Darko" and "The Jacket".

"Donnie Darko" is a really dense movie. I'd give a little plot summary, but you'd probably be confused by the time I get to the jet engine crashing into the house, which happens pretty early. It's one of those movies where you're wondering what's going on until the last few minutes, when everything comes together in almost perfect clarity--and then you start going back over everything that's gone on and looking at all the little hints, clues and foreshadowings in an entirely different light. It's a movie that you need to watch more than once so you can say "Oh, yeah!"

I do recommend it, but I wasn't highly thrilled with the acting and/or the directing. Jake Gyllenhaal's "schizophrenic face" was just on the wrong side of mugging for the camera, for example. It all seemed too stylized, which of course was probably what the director wanted. If you haven't seen it, just be forewarned that it's weird and worth watching.

"The Jacket" got horrible reviews, I learned after we watched it. I have no idea why--it was pretty good. I read one review that excoriated it for its leaps in logic, but I must say that I didn't really detect any. I guess it all hinges on how willing you are to believe that a man stuffed into a strtaitjacket and shut into a morgue drawer can travel forward in time. I'm predisposed towards time travel by any means, so I bought it.

Maybe it was teh Bevar's sound system, or the widescreen TV, but I was *really* getting claustrophobic the first couple of times they locked Adrien Brody in the drawer. I thought the acting was pretty decent, but it's the only Adrien Brody movie I've ever seen and I hear that a little of him can go a long way.

I just wanted to get these thoughts down. I'll get more detailed after I see the movies a few more times.