Movie: Donnie Darko

Interpretation:
I think its an excellent piece into the mind of a schizophrenic. The fact that Donnie is a sleepwalker is symbolic of 'the splitting of the mind' in schizophrenia. It's when Donnie splits, he meets Frank who tells him the world is going to end as well as 'show' to him that all the deeper mysteries in life that Donnie has been pondering (i.e. the existence of God, and the space/time continum,) are valid and urges him to follow the signs when he 'wakes up'.
Throughout the movie Donnie remains in the limbo between his two minds, receiving valid information from both realities making them coincide. This duality is overwhelming for Donnie as you can see from the sessions with his psychiatrist(false god), who believes that Donnie is simply schizo and has convinced Donnie himself that he is schizo. This label that has been put on Donnie actually contributes to his confusion, anger and unhappiness. If he is what we call schizophrenic then is this connection he has with Frank (God) false therefore, there is no God? Or, if it is real then could everyone else be 'crazy' and he has to accept his role and protect them from themselves?
Donnie chooses to believe the latter, after his shrink tells him that she's been prescribing him a placebo (her facing the fact that she herself is not God and therefore cannot tell him if his experiences are real or not)And neither can we.
What ties it all together is the end, when all the main characters experience this alternate reality themselves as their dreams. Everything that happened, the flood, the fire the shootings all took place in a collective 'dream' and when shaking those characters to their core, making them question the path their live are taking for example at the end when Frank (the boy) 'dreams' that he gets shot because of the Halloween costume he has designed for himself, and how Patrick's character wakes up in tears probably happy that it was all a 'dream' and he has time to stop molesting little kids etc etc...Finally I believe the jet engine is also symbolic and Donnie really shoots himself in the head.

Rating: 4.3 with 11 votes.