Title: It's No Donnie Darko
Review: Although The Chumscrubber may deal with some content similar to Donnie Darko, it fails to reach Donnie's sublime climax. Both occur in suburbia, both have somewhat of a family drama element, both deal with death, and both have an absurd/sci-fi element to them. Darko's elements pull together beautifully, while Chumscrubber's meander, without a clear direction.I loved Ralph Fiennes performance, as the delusional mayor of the town, but it didn't add up to anything. The plot yields no greater discoveries of character, beyond the fact that everyone needs to take drugs because they hate their lives. But rather than having people change or deal with their problems, they seem to squirm about in them, never dealing with anything concrete or moving foward. The lack of dramatic action results in a film that, although interesting in content, never approaches the satisfactory build and arc of Donnie.
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