Domino Review
by samseescinema (sammeriam AT comcast DOT net)October 14th, 2005
Domino
reviewed by Sam Osborn of www.samseescinema.com
rating: 3 out of 4
If there's any one thing I can say with complete conviction about Tony Scott's new film it's that Domino certainly isn't your ordinary biopic. It's a wild, gritty, frenetic ride into the hyperbole of a life as a bounty hunter. It goes so far over the top that many viewers will be inclined to laugh, but in the end, Domino's just a hell of a good time.
It opens with the lines "This is based off a true story...sort of." Just Domino's way of saying, "you've been warned." The picture fades in to find our heroine, the legendary bounty hunter Domino Harvey (Keira Knightley), in a makeshift interrogation room FBI detective Taryn Miles (Lucy Liu). The detective's looking for the story behind a hollowed-out armored van that formerly held $10 million, before it was stolen by a group of thieves named "the first ladies."
This is about as much as the film's going to offer us for the first hour, jumping instead into Domino's life before bounty hunting. Whether or not Harvey's story is given any justice is immaterial when critiquing the film, Tony Scott having taken endless antagonism for his warping of her story. But either way we look at it, Domino's backstory works. If for nothing else, the segments allow us some much needed insight into a character we'll have scant chance to examine in the following hour when the film kicks back into gear.
To be honest, I got confused. No more than 20 minutes after the armored van storyline picked back up I was left reeling with confusion. But Scott must have known his film was hard to follow, because along with gratuitous subtitles to clear up some scratchy audio, he includes flow charts to explain the plot's twisty revelations. Now, I usually do pretty well with hard to follow plots. But Domino's story, along with being wandering, was made exponentially hard to follow because of its style. The quick cuts and camera tricks often leave little room for dialogue, especially when the lines are echoed for dramatic effect. Frankly, it gives the plot a convoluted, messy feel. I have a gut feeling that when I try Domino for a second viewing (and actually keep up with the film's breakneck storyline), I'll love it. But upon my first, and very confused viewing, my experience was tarnished by the plot's convolutions.
Keira Knightley's agent should be given a medal. Her gameplan for the young actress is pitch perfect. She's been playing all the fields, jumping from genre to genre and gaining frantic mass popular appeal. She's gone from the cute Natalie Portman look-a-like to a full-fledged celebrity. The payoff to this agent's gameplan is that Knightley performs brilliantly in each role she's given, Domino being no exception. She plays a Domino Harvey that's tough and brutal, but not without innocence. Some thought she couldn't pull such a "bad" character off, but judging by her performance, the rumors didn't seem to scare her.
Supporting work also deserves congratulations, especially to Christopher Walken, whose role as a crazed reality television producer gives the film some offbeat comic relief; and also to Mickey Rourke, whose terse, low-toned growl makes for some great bounty hunter-esque lines.
There are more cuts in Domino than Michael Bay, the king of "MTV" directors, could ever dream of shooting. One audience member exiting the theatre described Domino's visual style as, "cut, cut, cut, slow-mo, cut, cut, cut, fast-mo, repeat." As much as I'd hate to admit it, he's kind of right. Scott may have taken it a bit too far technically with Domino. The film reminded me a little of Oliver Stone's Any Given Sunday, which James Berardinelli so fondly referred to as "directorial masturbation." This film pulls many of the same tricks as Stone's. It feels like an all-out, in your face, assault on your senses. It pushes, pulls, and tears at your nerves, even in the most benign of scenes. When a cut longer than 3 seconds rolls around, it feels like a fleeting breath of air before we're catapulted again into Domino Harvey's world.
But, in a strange and visceral way, Scott's style works. The film truly feels violent. There actually isn't all that much violence (at least not anymore than the typical action flick), but the film itself has the look and sound of a very vocal rotting corpse. And of course, I mean rotting corpse in the best of ways. It burrows us into the down and dirty of the world, letting us live and feel it along with Domino. She says she works as a bounty hunter because it allows her to live in the low, but on the right side of the law. Essentially, we the audience are doing the same thing. Tony Scott's taking us deep into Domino Harvey's world, attempting to shock-and-awe us with his style and gross caricature of reality, and let us actually feel gritty. His style is over the top, yes, but it's the only way he's going to get us to listen.
I think a lot of people are going to hate this film. They'll think Tony Scott's trying too hard, that the film's gimmicky and cliched. But Domino is more than its action-flick clichés; it's an oddly gripping portrait of woman who's seemed to find herself among all the grit and grime of her chosen profession, and whose caricature is made frighteningly entertaining by Tony Scott And if for nothing else, I recommend Domino because it's simply a rollercoaster of a good time.
-www.samseescinema.com
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