Imagine. You've just had dinner with the family, and instead of heading back upstairs to the retreat of your room, you decide to go for a walk.

Seconds later, a jet engine falls out of the sky, obliterating your bedroom. You'd probably count yourself lucky, wouldn't you?

Not Donnie Darko. For our eponymous hero, the events described take on a much greater significance than just sheer dumb luck, setting him off on a journey questioning the very nature of everyday existence.

For one thing, he starts seeing a big, evil-looking rabbit called Frank. Frank tells him to do things. Bad things. Donnie complies. His parents get worried and call a shrink. Donnie starts seeing and experiencing things he could never even have imagined before.

Then when he starts dabbling in time travel he finds out that the world will end in 28 days.

Donnie Darko sounds (as one character comments) like it could be the name of a porn star or a superhero - or just a joke.

Similarly first-time director/writer Richard Kelly has deliberately set out to tell a story with little regard for the strict lines of genre. American suburban drama dances the tango with a sci-fi story locking its horns with a coming-of-age story peering quizzically at a 1980s social satire.

It seems Kelly wants the film to mean many different things to different people. The result is a movie which, like Being John Malkovich, is a movie occasionally overburdened under the weight of ideas. And given that the film works in so many different domains, it does run the risk of not actually saying anything - of being intelligent, beautiful, but ultimately aimless.

But by and large, the film holds together, zipping us along on a journey as varied and crazy as Donnie himself.

The 1980s haven't been explored much in cinema yet, and the film's take on the period, set in the context of the 1988 Bush-Dukakis presidential election, subtly brings home that era's materialism.

The sci-fi story works well too, using Donnie's new-found perceptions as a further expression of the growing pains and joys of adolescence.

Jake Gyllenhaal, as Donnie, is superb throughout and fully convinces as a teenager coming into his own. He is complimented well by a strong supporting cast, including 80s icons Drew Barrymore and Patrick Swayze.

The film also possesses a light touch and a healthy streak of comedy courses through the film, particularly with Swayze's obnoxious self-help guru.

Despite occasional flaws, this is a film well worth seeing - just don't worry if you leave the cinema unsure what it was all about.

Review by Munzar Sharif