DONNIE DARKO (2001) Review

There are some films where watching them is not just following a narrative; it is integrating with a state of mind, a feeling, a void. Donnie Darko is one of these films. Richard Kelly’s 2001 cult production may seem like a time travel fantasy at first glance, but it is actually an identity labyrinth woven with psychic fractures. As a female critic, watching this film means confronting not only Donnie’s but also Gretchen’s, her mother’s, her sister’s, and her teachers’ existential shadows.

Time and The Illusion of Masculine Heroism

Donnie’s struggle with time begins as if it challenges the classical male hero narrative: He is a special young man who “knows” he must save the world. However, the female gaze watches this narrative with a questioning distance: Is the world he is really trying to save a world where the system is reproduced, where women are oppressed, and children are abused? Donnie is not trying to break the system, but the temporal illusion that makes the system invisible. And this rupture coincides with the "untimely" trauma that women have felt throughout history: This is a universe of stories that are not ed, not told, and cannot find a place in chronology.

Gretchen: The Representation of Lost Girls

The character of Gretchen should not be read as Donnie's love object, but rather as the embodiment of trauma. She is a young girl whose mother is so threatened that she seeks shelter. Even her arrival is undefined: she has no last name, her past is blurred, her future is murky. In this respect, Gretchen becomes the representation of both Donnie and the "lost girls" oppressed by the system. The price of Donnie's heroism is her death — just as many women in real life pay the price for men's internal crises, society's silences, and the distortions of the system.

The Silent Resistance of Mothers, Teachers, and Female Figures

Donnie's mother is a woman trapped within the system but observing. She watches her son's downfall but cannot intervene; she s her daughter's talents but knows that she too will become invisible in this system. The teachers—especially the character played by Drew Barrymore—are clearly in a critical position. A woman who stands against the system, is censored, and is fired. These women may not be direct guides in Donnie’s mental journey, but they hold a place in the gaps he opens with their own weight. Because even though the hero in this film is a man, a silent female solidarity slowly fades throughout the film.

The Gender of Trauma and Psychosis

Donnie’s psychological disintegration also reveals the fragility of masculinity and repressed sensitivity. But it also begs the question: Is Donnie considered “sacred” rather than “crazy” because he is a man? What if Gretchen had spoken in time, followed butterflies, and drawn circles in time? Hers would have been “hysteria.” At this point, the film falls into the trap of making women’s trauma invisible while sanctifying the crisis of masculinity.

Donnie Darko is, first and foremost, a narrative of “disappearance.” And the female gaze does not only reveal this disappearance through Donnie; follows the footsteps of lost women, ignored stories, suppressed mothers and silent teachers. While asking the question of whether time is a circle or a line, the film reminds us when time stops for women, when it is stolen and when it does not repeat. Maybe Donnie does not save the world, but he leaves us with the question: “Which world is worth saving?”

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