Assignment 5- ...Except the Sex

The film Donnie Darko is a perfect example of sex being implied rather than explicitly shown. Donnie is a troubled teen who regularly sees a psychiatrist and takes medication for psychological problems. Donnie is visited by what everyone assumes is an imaginary visitor who tells him the world will end in twenty-eight days. After hearing this news, Donnie realizes he isn’t ready to die and begins to feel very alone. A new girl, Gretchen, comes to school and Donnie ends up dating her. Gretchen turns out to be one of the few people with whom Donnie can share his experiences with the visitor and confide his fears with. When Donnie throws a party at his house, Gretchen shows up late and is very upset because her mother, who is being stalked by Gretchen’s stepfather, has gone missing. Finding comfort in each other, they head to Donnie’s room to be alone. They begin talking and then the moment clearly starts heading a certain way but before anything actually happens, the screen cuts to the next scene with Donnie and Gretchen walking down the stairs smiling and in synchronized step with each other. By not actually showing the sex scene, the movie is kept a bit less crude. More importantly though, the scene instead of the sex scene (walking down the stairs) shows how the two connected with each other and are happy together.