Donnie = doomed?

[Trentz0r]

Ok I just watched the movie, and it was awesome, now I'm in the "what the hell?" mode which I'm sure everyone went into after watching the movie.

Now, to me it seems that Donnie went from bad to worse. In the real universe (when he does get out of bed) he's miserable and disturbed with not much going his way. Slowly things become better, he gets a girlfriend, starts figuring out what Frank needs from him and even exposes Jim Cunningham's child pornography secret. It seems that everything he was doing was correct, up until he went to Grandma Death's house.

From there Gretchen dies and he shoots Frank, then he believes by going back in time will solve this. He laughs whilst in bed and, from what I believe, this is because he figures everything will be alright from now on. Then he dies. At one point he says he'll be able to "sigh a breathe of relief" but he loses everything by going back in time, including his life.

If this was all part of God's plan, please don't respond with biased religious responses, isn't it kind of sardonic that he's created a living being that was doomed?

[Pax]

Trent, I understand completely where you're coming from. But I think that maybe one way of looking at it is that we all die, it's only a question of when. So Donnie, who, as you said, was not in the best of shape in the real world, got a taste of something better in the tangent world, and dies upon returning to the real world. So Donnie got a sense of what life really is about, or can be about it, if we only realize it, i.e. that there are people who care about us and love us, and that hope is possible. It is ironic that Donnie dies after experiencing this, but such is the stuff of great drama and tragedy. If Donnie had lived on at the end of the movie, the movie would not have had a fraction of its emotional impact. I urge you to look at it not as some "logical" time-travel movie, but a look at alienated youth, the '80's, and the search for faith. Hope you enjoy watching the movie some more, which I'm sure you'll do. Peace. Also, check out a lot of the other posts here for some excellent discussions and observations. You'll probably find something to be interested in.

[durga777]

Also...i'm not sure if you realize (maybe you did) that donnie was perfectly aware that he was going to die. he consciously made the decision to just go to bed, and definitely knew the outcome, which is why he was crackin up...