SPOLIER:
Since I was able to figure out this movie, and appreciate it without reading "the rules"…..Granted, we're talking about a movie here...not an actual event...but I think thats what makes this movie so great. You can go off on so many tangents with it.
Exactly!! That’s why I am so intrigued by a movie like this, we each bring our own history, knowledge and emotional leanings to bear when we experience film. I feel this movie contains an illusive quality of depth, you can throw the whole onion in the pot just for the ‘flavor’ or you can peel back the layers slice/dice/roast any method you personally prefer.
I do know that every gender/age viewing this movie at my house has been compelled to varying degree to analyze it. That says something doesn’t it? To accomplish that with a cross-section of viewers.

I also can’t think of a better way to end the film
Same here somehow the ending seems ‘inevitable’ particularly after repeated viewing. But I generally am happier with a ‘Happier ending!

I prefer to think that Frank is one of Donnie's constructs.
You could also take that on another ‘tangent’ that one teenager who viewed this movie suggested. They wondered if Donnie really ‘died’ the first time the engine dropped and that the whole movie was what he felt/thought/saw/ invented in his last seconds.

Donnie is chipping away at an invisible barrier that only he can see.
I know you want to stay away from the ‘extras’ But a interesting cut out is a scene called ‘Poetry Day’ where Donnie has to read his out loud in class. The director’s voiceover states something about Donnie is coming to an understanding of exactly what is coming. Basically something like: “A storm is coming Frank says…which will destroy the children….but he will deliver them from danger…he will deliver the children back safely to their doorsteps and send the monsters back to where they came from…a storm is coming Frank says…but only I can see it (or the monsters) , because I’m…Donnie Darko”
It’s bad enough to be a teenager in the usual angst without the additional pressure of being contacted through a barrier by a 6-ft bunny quizzing your knowledge of time travel with an aura of predestination and doom about him.

Yep I thought about that too, but we are basically shown that these events did happen, and that they did bleed through to another universe. We are shown that with the various cast members waking up and showing that they are effected by Donnie, and have soem sort of recripical memories from the other universe. Therefor it isn't just another "Incident at Owl Creek" movie.

Jason

Jason,

Yes, I found it interesting that that was their first comment on what was going on,,, they discarded it too in favor of actual time travel/tangent contact. But what amazed me is how thought provoking this movie is to viewers,..It’s not your usual teen flic.

“Lets assume it's an attraction. We would therefore see the particles approach one another, but would an observer on the other side of the barrier see this? As his time runs backwards, he would see the objects move apart. Yet to him it is our time that is running backwards and so he would reason that objects on different sides of the light barrier must have a mutual repulsion. Similarly, if we begin by assuming that such objects repel we will find they attract for the observer on the other side of the light barrier”

Still wrapping my brain around this one the wordage confuses me he seems to be going in a circle (or conflicting himself) when he states “Yet to him it is our time that is running backwards” and ending with his beginning, -in that net result, - both sides of the barrier (if it is repulsion) would perceive the other side to be moving backwards.

I used to love to try to wrap my brain around physics (years ago) I miss it. I’ve never read much in conjunction with time travel possibilities, just as it relates to current beliefs that within a black hole there can be no ‘time’ etc. Einstein’s approaching speed of light, - time would slow etc.
I need to get back to some of this and the current leanings. I love it.

Leena,

You're absolutly correct about the observer in a "reverse time" universe thinking that time was progressing foreward. Time, afterall, is relative to the observer.

Einsteinian physics has this same set up. If you are traveling faster then people around you (we're talking much faster...not just relative earth speeds), time changes. For you, time is the same, but for those people observing you, you would have slowed down. However to you, those people who are traveling SLOWER then you have actualy "sped up" in time...and would age quicker.

Quirky? Yes, but's it's been proven to be true using atomic clocks in orbit (and traveling far faster then syncronized clocks on earth). They will actualy move slower...but to the astronaughts, they are keeping perfect time.

So time is relative to the observer, moreso, if we are traveling backwards through time...which who knows...we could be, those in a reverse time universe wouldn't know that they are traveling backwards.

Let that cook your noodle for a while.

Jason

I should have known there was a practical reason I like 'Fast" cars/planes and horses. :}