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He even supplies an exact date: Donnie has a month to sort out whether Frank is serious, or if Donnie is in serious need of upping his meds. But Donnie's got other problems, too - namely, the 6-foot-tall, fanged rabbit named Frank who visits Donnie in night haunts and delivers the news that the world is coming to an end. The usual teenager torments are all there - idiot authority figures, bullies with switchblades, an exploding sex drive made all the more volcanic by the new girl in town, Gretchen (Malone).
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And it comes for Donnie (Gyllenhaal), a cocky, confused 16-year-old kid living in 1989 suburbia, at a time in his life - high school - when that idea (existentialism, really, though teenagers don't always know to call it that just yet) is dealing its first crippling blows. A frail, shock-haired old woman, nicknamed the macabre Grandma Death, whispers into Donnie Darko's ear: “Every living creature on Earth dies alone.” It's an idea the film superficially proves true, but spends its entire two hours refuting.
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