Movie Haiku - Domino

www.dominomovie.com


Dir: Tony Scott


Cast: Keira Knightley, Mickey Rourke, Edgar Ramirez, Delroy Lindo


Posh bounty hunter

all goes wrong when goldfish dies

removes the right arm


Whether you like Domino or not is largely going to depend on whether you like Tony Scott’s style of filmmaking. After recent successes with Spy Game and Man On Fire this is Scott amped up to 11, a non-stop thrill ride of saturated colours, jump cuts, and slow-motion; he uses every camera trick in the book to brush stroke his latest action-adventure. This is the story of Domino Harvey (Knightley), a posh English girl and former model who moved to LA with her mother (Jacqueline Bisset) after her father (the actor Laurence Harvey) passed away. Rebelling against the sorority system she drops out of college, spots an ad in the paper for aspiring bounty hunters and enrols for a seminar organised by bail bond expert (Lindo). It’s all a scam, but she does manage to grab the attention of the notorious Ed (Rourke) and his accomplice Choco (Ramirez, in his first major screen role) and persuades them to give her a job. What’s interesting about Domino is that it’s based on a real person, although ‘inspired by’ is probably a fairer term as Richard (Donnie Darko) Kelly’s script takes the character and her cohorts and then weaves an improbable plot around them involving a sick child, a gang of masked robbers dubbed The First Ladies, mafia kids, a casino boss and the production team of a reality television show (headed by Christopher Walken). The story is told in cut and paste fashion, starting at the end with Domino being interviewed by an FBI agent (Lucy Liu) and then jumping backwards and forwards in time as her story slowly unravels. What starts out as a rather quirky biopic soon spirals into the realms of fantasy as various larger than life characters enter the fray and the convoluted plot, with its numerous twists, heads towards an explosive climax atop of the Stratosphere tower – a scene which echoes Scott’s earlier work in True Romance. It’s certainly a wild ride, in turns sexy and violent, and with a cynical streak of humour throughout, but it’s not without flaws; for a start the film is a little too flabby and overlong, and certain scenes feel forced (the mescalin-induced encounter with Tom Waits) or simply unnecessary (the whole Jerry Springer episode) even if they do add more colour to the already saturated palette. Keira Knightley is okay but never quite convinces that there’s a tough-as-nails persona hiding behind her Southern counties accent. And that scene with the two machine guns is just silly. The supporting cast are generally good with Mickey Rourke again impressing – he really looks like he could be the real Ed Mosbey - and it’s a shame therefore that his character takes a back seat in the latter stages, allowing Domino to dominate the action. The film rightly acknowledges the real Domino Harvey – who was found dead in her bathtub earlier this Summer – in the closing credits, but after two hours of this film you’re left little clearer of the real facts about her life. Nevertheless, from the funky opening titles right through to the ‘first name only’ cast of characters at the end this is undoubtedly a guilty pleasure, a hugely enjoyable piece of trash – well, as long as you’re a fan of Tony Scott’s style that is!

soulmining rating: ****