The film is set in October 1988. It begins with a teenage boy named Donnie Darko, who is off his bike and passed out on the road at dawn. But he wakes up and rides back home.

The next scene shows him eating with his family. He has his parents, his older sister, Elizabeth, and his younger sister, Samantha. Elizabeth reveals that she is applying to Harvard. Donnie, however, gets difficult. He and Elizabeth swear at the table.

The kids attend a local private school called Middlesex. Donnie meets his friends and smokes with them. He then warns Samantha not to tell their parents.

That night, Donnie sleepwalks and meets this mysterious robot rabbit with a scary face named Frank. Frank admonishes him that the world will end in exactly 28 days.

The next morning, Donnie wakes up in a golf course. Then he goes home—only to discover that some aircraft crashed into his room. The cops won’t even allow him into the yard. No one knows how the vehicle came, though.

While at school, a new girl comes into the class that Donnie is in. The teacher, who is young, lets her choose where to sit.

Some time later, Donnie is driving with his pals—but he almost hits this very old lady, whom people call Grandma Death since she is over 100 years old. Luckily, though, she is okay. She also whispers something in Donnie’s ear.

From time to time, Donnie continues to see Frank. This concerns his parents. So, they have him see this psychotherapist, Dr. Thurman.

During their first session, Donnie reveals that he saw Frank. He also tells Dr. Thurman that Frank is his friend. Dr. Thurman thinks that Donnie might be hallucinating and living with paranoid schizophrenia.

At some point, Donnie sees Frank again, who asks him if he believes in time travel. Donnie then decides to ask his science teacher, Dr. Monnitoff about time travel. He gives him a book called The Philosophy of Time Travel, which happened to be written by the same old lady Donnie and his friends almost ran over the other day.

Later, Frank becomes a bad influence for Donnie since he makes him choose bad decisions. A major one is when he floods the school while sleepwalking.

However, Donnie is unaware of that once he’s awake. When he gets to school, he sees that the other students are excited for it to be closed. Yet the staff and law enforcement are investigating it.

Once the school reopens, one of Donnie’s friends is a suspect. When Donnie goes into the bathroom, his buddy gets angry because he thinks he’ll tell someone.

Donnie is also interested in this girl, Gretchen Ross. But she doesn’t exactly love him back at the moment. She also moved to this town because her mom needed to escape her abusive husband.

Some time later, Donnie’s gym teacher, Ms. Farmer, is having the class do a special exercise. She is explaining fictional scenarios and requiring the students to place them on a line ranging from fear to love. When it’s Donnie’s turn, however, he gets all difficult. He refuses to participate in the exercise. Then he has to go to the principal’s office.

Eventually, there is a school assembly happening. Donnie gets to speak at it. But he insults the principal, Mr. Cunningham. When he gets kicked out of the auditorium, everyone applauds.

During a certain evening, Donnie and Gretchen go on a date to a scary movie. Yet Gretchen falls asleep.

However, Frank is there, and he reveals himself to be a teenage boy with an injured eye. Then he tells him to burn down Mr. Cunningham’s house.

Later that week, the school is hosting a talent show. While Samantha and her friends are performing a dance, Donnie is setting Mr. Cunningham’s home on fire.

Not long after, Mr. Cunningham is arrested because he had child porn content in his house. Rose, who is Donnie’s mom, is then asked to chaperone for Samantha’s trip to Los Angeles, where she and her dance team will perform.

While the parents and Samantha are away, Donnie discovers that Elizabeth was accepted into Harvard. The two throw a costume party as a way to celebrate.

However, during that night, tension levels are on the rise. And time is running out.

What will happen next?

I was surprised how much this movie engaged me—especially since thrillers aren’t usually my favorite. But this one was different.

Aside from having fast pacing and quick scene-switching, there was also a hint of science fiction. That included the time travel subplot and the moving arms and fingers that would direct Donnie at times.

Donnie was flawed, but still likable. I admired his relationship with Gretchen, particularly when they finally kissed.

His sessions with Dr. Thurman were emotional. He would get scared, tired, and even cried once. But Dr. Thurman remained calm.

The tone of this film changed a lot. Sometimes it was dark. But sometimes it was also lighthearted.

And a big strength is the ticking clock and how much time remained until the world was going to end. When necessary, the date and how many days remained was revealed. I’m not going to say how it ends, though. But I will say that there are a good number of twists and turns.

That being said, this film is not without its flaws. For example, Donnie and his friends look similar with having dark hair in similar styles. It was sometimes hard to tell them apart.

There were also some unsatisfactory moments that I was hoping would get resolved. So, even though there are more strengths than weaknesses, the number of disappointing scenes was higher than I thought.

Overall, I thought Donnie Darko was decent. If the parts mentioned above were resolved, I would have considered this a good watch.

I give it 3.5 out of 5 stars.