Tony Scott's adaptation of late bounty hunter Domino Harvey's life, Domino, is a film as LSD experiment. The camera never stops moving, the plot never starts making much sense, and the characters have rarely more than a whisper of personality or depth. That doesn't mean that Domino is without it's moments, but what doesn't work more than outranks what does.
Domino is one of the many films to tell it's tale in a convoluted flashback form. It begins, essentially, at the end, and then backtracks to give us some idea who Domino Harvey (Keira Knightley) is. The daughter of film actor Laurence Harvey (most famous for his role in The Manchurian Candidate), she is abandoned to prep school by her mother (Jacqueline Bisset) after her father's death. She is then prodded to join a sorority in college, where she promptly punches out one of her fellow sorority sisters, leading to expulsion. Despising the Hollywood lifestyle, she sees an ad for a bounty hunter seminar and decides to show up, where she meets bail bondsman Claremont Williams (Delroy Lindo) and bounty hunters Ed Moseby (Mickey Rourke) and Choco (Edgar Ramirez). She hooks up with them and proves to be useful, becoming an official member of the team.
When one of Claremont's mistresses' (Monique) granddaughter is diagnosed with a serious illness, Claremont hatches a complicated scheme to obtain the money necessary, involving a 10 million dollar armored car robbery, mob connections and mistaken identity. Ed, Choco and Domino are dispatched to reclaim the money, accompanied by a reality TV crew trying to create a show based on their lives, run by producer Mark Heiss (Christopher Walken), but things quickly turn messy for all of them.
Domino is ostensibly supposed to be about the life of it's title character, Domino Harvey, but we are rarely allowed to get very deep into this character. Sure, some details are revealed, but that doesn't equal insight. Domino, in this film, is very much a sketchy rendering, the details all missing. Her relationship with her mother is addressed, but never explored. How she relates to her fellow bounty hunters is glimpsed briefly also, and the film works best in those moments, but this group doesn't really become characters we can be invested in. When the going gets rough, there isn't enough development of these people for us to put much concern into them.
On the plot front, Domino is a difficult film to figure out. The screenplay from Richard Kelley makes it difficult to follow the various twists and turns. You are never really sure what is going on at times, making it near impossible to become invested in the film's story. The combination of confusing plotting and nascent character development ends up leaving you with little to peak your interest.
You can't really talk about Domino without addressing director Tony Scott's over-exaggerated filming style. The film never stops doing something for more than a matter of seconds. Whether it is hand-held filming, postproduction massaging to effect color, add jitter, or editing that can reduce whole segments to almost subliminal images, Domino always has something going on. This could be identified as a style, but it's more like Tony Scott showing off. Domino has the feeling of a film school student playing with his first major film and throwing everything into mix to show how "arty" he is. It doesn't ruin the film, but it doesn't really add anything much to it either, and at times it is a distraction.
Acting-wise, Domino has a solid cast. Knightley is good in the role of bad girl, Rourke gives one of his best straight performances in years and Ramirez gets the job done. Walken is amusing to watch as always, and Ian Ziering and Brian Austin-Green of Beverly Hills 90210 fame show up to poke some fun at their images, playing themselves.
In the end, Domino adds up to not much. Lacking an involving plot, interesting characters and a bit too much visual "sophistication," Domino is ends up with a role of snake eyes.
Domino is one of the many films to tell it's tale in a convoluted flashback form. It begins, essentially, at the end, and then backtracks to give us some idea who Domino Harvey (Keira Knightley) is. The daughter of film actor Laurence Harvey (most famous for his role in The Manchurian Candidate), she is abandoned to prep school by her mother (Jacqueline Bisset) after her father's death. She is then prodded to join a sorority in college, where she promptly punches out one of her fellow sorority sisters, leading to expulsion. Despising the Hollywood lifestyle, she sees an ad for a bounty hunter seminar and decides to show up, where she meets bail bondsman Claremont Williams (Delroy Lindo) and bounty hunters Ed Moseby (Mickey Rourke) and Choco (Edgar Ramirez). She hooks up with them and proves to be useful, becoming an official member of the team.
When one of Claremont's mistresses' (Monique) granddaughter is diagnosed with a serious illness, Claremont hatches a complicated scheme to obtain the money necessary, involving a 10 million dollar armored car robbery, mob connections and mistaken identity. Ed, Choco and Domino are dispatched to reclaim the money, accompanied by a reality TV crew trying to create a show based on their lives, run by producer Mark Heiss (Christopher Walken), but things quickly turn messy for all of them.
Domino is ostensibly supposed to be about the life of it's title character, Domino Harvey, but we are rarely allowed to get very deep into this character. Sure, some details are revealed, but that doesn't equal insight. Domino, in this film, is very much a sketchy rendering, the details all missing. Her relationship with her mother is addressed, but never explored. How she relates to her fellow bounty hunters is glimpsed briefly also, and the film works best in those moments, but this group doesn't really become characters we can be invested in. When the going gets rough, there isn't enough development of these people for us to put much concern into them.
On the plot front, Domino is a difficult film to figure out. The screenplay from Richard Kelley makes it difficult to follow the various twists and turns. You are never really sure what is going on at times, making it near impossible to become invested in the film's story. The combination of confusing plotting and nascent character development ends up leaving you with little to peak your interest.
You can't really talk about Domino without addressing director Tony Scott's over-exaggerated filming style. The film never stops doing something for more than a matter of seconds. Whether it is hand-held filming, postproduction massaging to effect color, add jitter, or editing that can reduce whole segments to almost subliminal images, Domino always has something going on. This could be identified as a style, but it's more like Tony Scott showing off. Domino has the feeling of a film school student playing with his first major film and throwing everything into mix to show how "arty" he is. It doesn't ruin the film, but it doesn't really add anything much to it either, and at times it is a distraction.
Acting-wise, Domino has a solid cast. Knightley is good in the role of bad girl, Rourke gives one of his best straight performances in years and Ramirez gets the job done. Walken is amusing to watch as always, and Ian Ziering and Brian Austin-Green of Beverly Hills 90210 fame show up to poke some fun at their images, playing themselves.
In the end, Domino adds up to not much. Lacking an involving plot, interesting characters and a bit too much visual "sophistication," Domino is ends up with a role of snake eyes.