I say it so often of my favourite movies it’s probably become boring to regular readers – when I love a movie, I come to repeat viewings with almost crippling hesitation … I’m so scared of finding the movie somehow not the way I remembered. Interesting, then, how I came to this one on a second viewing. Quite honestly I was fully expecting the worst and didn’t really mind for once if it turned out to be that bad. But, what can I say? It slew me again within seconds, before Mimzy was even introduced. And when Mimzy was introduced? Just consider me in love. I’m not a member of the Facebook groups “For the love of Mimzy” and “I need a Mimzy” just for the sake of being quirky, lol. Even moreso after this viewing.

Yet I still don’t know what it is I love so much about this movie. There is just … something ... about it that leaves me at the end, even while I know it’s not technically perfect, just saying, “yes, I know, but why the hell not?”

One thing I didn’t mention in the first review that I really meant to mention – the subtlety of the sci-fi elements. Those little moments like Emma half-flying as she jumps over a log, or the way the Sprite can is clearly too hot or too cold to touch when it teleports, explaining better than any dialogue why a human couldn’t be sent; the way the kids discover their “powers”; and the whole final act about Emma’s tear. Considering how much the movie feels absolutely like a kids’ movie, these moments are unbelievably well delivered, so well that they really only hit you when you’re thinking back on the movie long after watching.

This movie truly hasn’t left my mind since I was first in line to see it back in March, and I haven’t been that way about a movie in a long time – I don’t think I’ve ever been that way about a movie I had no idea what to expect from. Like, even from the moment I heard about this movie, something just clicked and I had to see it like no other movie I’ve known. There is just plain something about this movie and I recommend it to just about anyone who’ll listen. Among all the great performances here, Joely Richardson deserves major kudos for how well she portrays that parental fear we see so tragically often in the modern world; but I really understated Rhiannon Leigh Wryn’s performance in the earlier review too … I found her absolutely amazing on this viewing. Also, for the record, it did get the all-out bawling response from me on this viewing that I found so sorely lacking that first time around.

30th March 2007:

What to say about this one . . . I really don’t know where to begin, it’s sort of a tough one. I wanted to see this so badly the moment I heard about it, I mean, how can you resist that title? And the moment it begins, you know you’re in for something truly out of this world. This movie, if nothing else, certainly gets a lot of points for being both unique and even a little brave in this world of quick fix entertainment.

I think the best way to describe the movie could be something along the lines of Escape to Witch Mountain meets E.T. . . . maybe a little AI towards the end? (*Edit*: or, this just occurred to me, Donnie Darko for kids :)) It’s a lot more than Witch Mountain though, albeit quite a lot less than the Spielberg movies (*Edit*: and definitely no DD). There’s definitely something missing in the movie, an emotional punch I think, and while now having sat through the whole thing I can understand why the lack of emotion could’ve been deliberate and that it makes total sense and probably the more I think about it, the more it will make sense, I still have to mention it. I really kind of wanted the E.T. all-out bawling my eyes out ending and this didn’t really do it for me.

Howard Shore’s music is pretty great, again quite understated on the emotional side, and there’s a great song co-written and performed by Roger Waters over the end credits that I’ve gotta get hold of (ooh – that wasn’t too hard :)). The performances though not perfect, work – Rhiannon Leigh Wryn reminds me of Jodelle Ferland somewhere between the TV movie Mermaid and now, and she really comes into her own towards the end of the movie. I really liked the scenes between Rainn Wilson and Kathryn Hahn, and Michael Clarke Duncan so reminded me of Cobra Bubbles in Lilo & Stitch I was giggling every time he was on screen, lol.

All in all, I think it will take another viewing for me to truly make my mind up on this one. But like I said, it definitely scores points for daring to be different. And of course, I want my very own Mimzy now

I noticed a funny parallel between this movie and Almost Famous today, and no it’s not ‘cos I just watched a Cameron Crowe movie, I’d kinda noticed it before … it features a couple of characters, and the same characters at that, that I would love to have in my own life. Every time I see Maggie Gyllenhaal these days I’m reminded of her big sister role in this movie and she is so the ultimate big sister; and Mary McDonnell makes a fantastic mother – I love how she looks at Miss Farmer with such pity after the scene in the principal’s office … you can see so much in her performance of how people, perhaps especially parents, play an awkward role in life while their feelings are just as real as the rest of us – even when she’s cheering her daughter on in the Sparkle Motion dance troupe, you can kinda tell she’s not that behind the whole idea.

The other thing that struck me was how simple the movie really is in the end – I wrote in my journal a while ago about how I bought the Director’s Cut DVD (having already sold my original copy of the Theatrical Cut) and was already ordering another copy of the Theatrical Version only an hour in. I mean, this movie is complex, yeh … but it’s not exactly on the Ingmar Bergman end of the concentration scale. And why did Richard Kelly feel the need to explain it anyway? I think he really took a lot away from the movie with that cut. To me, at least, it seemed like he was saying, “Yeh, I thought about this … a lot ...” And to me, it’s not him who should’ve been thinking about it that much, his job was to come up with the mystery. It’s the audience’s job to think it to death if they want to. It’s like Phantasm in a way, and the Director’s Cut was like one of that movie’s many explanatory sequels.

In its original form, I think this movie is a masterpiece. Every single performance, major to minor role, is absolutely perfect, and there’s love and pain all over the place. Donnie Darko is part plain whacko, part Dennis the Menace, part superhero, part Alex in A Clockwork Orange. And it ends with that unforgettable cover of Tears for Fears’ “Mad World”. It really does get better, and I see more, every time I see it. I’ve only touched the tip of a whole iceberg of thoughts I have in these few paragraphs.

Oh yeh I had intended to put something into this review about how I think it’s about the cycle of violence but I guess this sentence is all you’re gonna get now ‘cos I’ve forgotten anything but the gist of it lol.