I decided to give it another try, and it grew on me. Toward the end, when the little girl's team went to California for the competition, I saw the ending coming, though not the time loop reset, of the jet engine crashing through the roof and killing Donnie.
It's an annoying movie to me. Very well MADE, production wise, but seems like the time loop part is tight and interesting, but burried with a bunch of silly random ideas that don't fit or flesh out.
I'll never watch it again.
Listen to the directors commentary and you will hear all the stuff that didnt make sense, didn't get shown right, making it fail hard.
That director always puts too much random crap into his otherwise well made films.
I mostly enjoy the film for its atmosphere and quirkiness.
Some films that require heavy lifting I love to delve into, other films I'm ok with lingering questions because I just don't care to dig deeper -- I enjoy the film on the surface.
This film fits the latter description for me.
It's a film where a guy came to grips with dying alone in the name of love -- to save someone he loved from dying and he figured how to do that by time travel.
Details be damned.