I was a big fan of Richard Kelly's Donnie Darko when it came out the first time. I'd followed the project since it first gained public notice on Harry Knowles' Aint It Cool News website, when it was still in script form. He described in his review of Kelly's screenplay the basis for a truly odd and fascinating film; it hooked not only me but Drew Barrymore, whose company optioned the script and ended up producing it. It went to Sundance, was picked up by Newmarket Films, released in in October, was the first film post September 11th to feature an airplane disaster, and ended up grossing a mere half million dollars. I was greatly impressed by Kelly's film, and bought it on DVD, along with the millions of other people who through word of mouth turned this cult oddity into a cult phenomenon.

So yes, I loved Donnie Darko, but I had my problems with it. It's scope felt somewhat limited, its emotional content sincere but incomplete. Its skewed timeline was confusing, and while I eventually figured out Kelly's intent with the story, I wasn't sure that the answers were all in the film; the commentary track on the DVD helped put a lot of pieces together. The numerous deleted scenes did too.

And then word came, not too long ago, that those scenes and others would be reintegrated into the film, and that the resulting new version would be given a rare second chance at the box office.

What a glorious second chance it is. This new cut coming to theaters is the film that should have been released initially. It is nearly thirty minutes longer and is astoundingly better; even if you've seen most of the additional footage on the DVD, you can't comprehend it's emotional impact until you see it as it was supposed to be. A very good film has suddenly become great.

The new scenes, or new parts of old scenes, lend the film a wider scope; it must have been truly painful for Kelly to cut some of this material the first time around. So many things feel more complete now: Donnie's struggles to connect with his parents was a theme that hovered over the original cut, but here it becomes something far more substantial; his relationship with them actually develops over the course of the film, as do the parents themselves in the several scenes they now get to themselves. And the romance between Donnie and Gretchen is now a legitimate romance, rather than a deux ex machina required to complete the puzzle of the plot. They kiss; they fight; they get back together; the feel confused but excited. Their last scene together is now not only tragic, but heartbreaking, and their argument over Watership Down is a brilliant touch.

Other scenes were in the original cut but will seem new because of the soundtrack, which has been completely redesigned and remixed to excellent effect. A few new songs have been added that were too expensive to include before, such as Never Tear Us Apart by INXS. Further additions take the form of new special effects -- not overindulgent we-did-it-because-we-could-afford-it-now CGI, but subtle changes that don't feel out of place. No worries: Kelly is not suffering from George Lucas syndrome here.

One of the most interesting new elements is the inclusion of pages from the book The Philosophy Of Time Travel. Every now and then, a few pages will be superimposed over the screen. The dense text may make little sense at times, but the words stick in your subconsciousness, and that's where they belong. They add an oddly epic feel to the film, and when it is over, any apprehension that remains about what exactly happened is accompanied not by a suspicion that the screenplay has a few holes but by an overwhelming sense that there are things in the universe that we cannot understand completely.

The end of the film, you may or may not recall, featured a montage of all the characters, set to the haunting sounds of Gary Jules' Mad World. It was a nice attempt to wrap things up, but its ultimate purpose was slightly unclear. I just assumed it didn't have one, other than a directorial urge to tie up all the loose ends, but now we have that same montage preceeded by a page of text, and the difference that text makes is, for lack of a better term, mind blowing. Not so much in terms of content, but in the way such a little addition can change the dramatic swing of the denoument.

If you've seen the film before and don't feel like throwing down a few more bucks for a redux, I advise you to reconsider. If you haven't seen it before, I envy you, in a way; you're seeing the film for the first time the way everyone should have. Technically, none of these additions are necessary; the film was good enough in its original form, good enough to justify the attention that has resulted in this re-release. But now that I've seen this version, my old DVD has been rendered obsolete. The promise that jumped out at me five years ago has been fulfilled, and I cannot imagine watching the film any other way. This isn't just a case of addition; it's also correction, revision and, most importantly, expansion.