Why Patrick Swayze’s Creepy Donnie Darko Role Is his Best

Actors often find themselves in slumps or career stagnation when they are presented with a choice. They can continue to take similar parts or try and switch up the narrative and do something different. For Patrick Swayze, the sex symbol of the ’80s, this was the case in 2001. That year, he starred in the cult classic Donnie Darko. In the film, he did not portray his normal sexy self. Rather, he banked on his good-guy image to subvert expectations. In doing so, he made a clear statement that he was willing to take certain risks with both his career and his image. It was a masterclass in pivoting.

Patrick Swayze’s Final 10 Movie Roles

What Is Donnie Darko About?

Donnie Darko is a small film that is both horror and mind-bender rolled into one. It tells the story of the eponymous character and his strange journey through a period of time in which he seems to be living in a quasi-dream state. Here, he finds himself having visions and portents of the future. The story explores concepts like wormholes, time-dilation, and how the self interacts with one’s surroundings despite overwhelming pressure from seemingly malevolent forces. He is also accompanied and led through this journey by Frank, a man in a frightening rabbit costume.

It is truly a mindblowing movie that deserves attention from those who just want to see a film that encapsulates many of the feelings of growing up at the tail-end of the 1980s. The film stars Jake Gyllenhaal, Drew Barrymore, Jena Malone (one of her best roles), and Patrick Swayze. For many viewers, the idea that there were nefarious forces at work that were not simply paranormal was the larger horror.

Two characters embodied this more than any others. The obvious one was Kitty Farmer (Beth Grant) a mother who was the epitome of a helicopter parent well before the term had been coined. She loudly decries Donnie’s mother and her commitment to a girl’s dance troupe known as Sparkle Motion and is a true believer in his motivational program for teens. The other malevolent force is Jim Cunningham himself, although it is more about his motivations than anything else.

The Creeping Horror of Jim Cunningham

The character of Jim Cunningham arrives at Donnie’s school touting his program for controlling fear. He is the smiling face of the 1980s self-help infomercial — perfectly quaffed with a big smile and what seems like endless patience for the impertinence of people like Donnie. At one point, they have a standoff during Cunningham’s big presentation and Cunningham seems to only want to educate Donnie on his fears.

As a way to help children, Cunningham also helps create Sparkle Motion, a dance group for the young girls of the school. It is the group that Kitty Farmer is so dedicated to. We often see the group of young girls practicing their dances outside the school, many times in slow motion and with uncomfortably provocative movements. Both Cunningham and Farmer are invested in the success of the group and in getting them ready for their performances.

With all of his teachings about fear and taking control of one’s life and mindset, Cunningham has a deep, dark secret. We find this out when Donnie, under the influence of Frank, burns down Cunningham’s home. As the firefighters sift through the aftermath, they find a room that outs Cunningham as a pedophile. This is something that shocks the community and simply destroys Kitty Farmer. However, it does seem like a true comeuppance for a character who seemed far too excited to be discussing fear with children.

A Career Highlight

As stated, this role was a departure for Swayze, who is obviously playing off his 1980s persona. However, it is the perfect misdirect for a character that is immediately cloying and comes across perfectly to audiences as the speaker a school brings in to motivate kids. The kind of speaker that kids immediately hate and that a select group of parents worship as a truth-teller.

Swayze turns his smile up to eleven and creates a level of smarminess that makes the back of your brain itch with a need to see him get knocked down a peg or two. But when we find out the truth, it feels almost too horrible. Swayze plays the character so well that when the truth does come out, you feel like yelling “I knew it!” at the screen even though there was no way you could have known the depth of his depravity.

We never see him in a room with a child, we are never given an inkling of this terrible secret, and yet Swayze plays the character with hidden layers in a way that highlights the nuance an actor can bring to a role. On second viewing, you can watch him and feel the creep oozing out of him. He is the epitome of “all signs were there” and “those people should have known”. Yet he plays it so true to life that we know we would all be in the same shock as the characters around him.

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Patrick Swayze was a great actor who will be remembered for roles like Ghost and Dirty Dancing. But this role, an independent role, is where his raw talent for understatement comes through. He could not be a worse person in the guise of such a caring one. This is a testament to a man whose blockbuster films made him the hero, even when he was supposed to be the villain (ex: Point Break).

Swayze was something of an anomaly. An actor whose career could have delved even deeper into these types of characters. However, Patrick Swayze died in 2009 at 57 from cancer, and we were deprived of ever seeing him play a role like this again. It’s too bad. Jim Cunningham could have been the start of an entirely new and exciting phase of his career. Stream Donnie Darko on Peacock.