Donnie Darko and his rabbit friend reminded me of another film friendship between a strange and yet happy guy and his invisible white rabbit. Anyone ever hear of Harvey, starring Jimmy Stewart? If I remember correctly, Jimmy Stewart’s character causes a lot of embarrassment for his sisters (because he goes around talking to an invisible being), so they try to have him committed. Because this is a comedy, there’s a bit of confusion about who is getting committed and the hospital ends up mistaking the sister for the one who sees invisible rabbits. Jimmy Stewart’s character continues his friendship with Harvey, and the sister, once released, realizes she liked her brother as he was, seeing invisible rabbits somehow made him nicer than other human beings.
While darker than Harvey, Donnie Darko is about a young guy who sees a rabbit; of course, Donnie Darko’s invisible rabbit is a source of aggression and violence for Donnie, who aside from his vandalism and a single incident of pyromania seems to be a likeable guy who goes against the status quo and who suffers from schizophrenia. Like many characters who defy social codes and speak against them, tragedy and death awaited Donnie. While I understood the sci-fi explanation which reasoned that Donnie was a link between the real universe and the alternate future universe, I had a difficult time making meaning of Donnie’s death. To view Donnie’s death as a sacrifice he made for those occupants of a depressing universe which he inhabited seems to be a copout; why should Donnie have to die to make things okay for everyone else? I thought this part of the film’s plot was an easy way out for the writer and director; the lead character saves the day and gets to escape a life that seemed almost meaningless for him. If the director is pointing to the despair felt by many people in the postmodern world, I suppose Donnie’s death pulls us to consider how unfair and meaningless many parts of life can be. I wondered whether Donnie laughs in the end because he understands this about his world.