Domino

Review by Michael Jaffe

Her name is Domino Harvey and she was a bounty hunter. That is the movie. The story is about how Domino, played by Keira Knightly, a spoiled, rich girl from Beverly Hills who is bored with her life and hates everything. She then by chance answers an ad for bounty hunter training. She then joins with Ed Mosby, Mickey Rourke, and Choco, Edgar Martinez, and becomes a bounty hunting trio. The three work for a bondsman, played by Delroy Lindo, who comes up with a scheme to get $300,000 from a wealthy casino owner. He uses the three bounty hunters and their Afghani driver Alf to steal $10 million, and then return it with the three hundred grand as a finders fee. Things of course go very wrong with the mafia, three loud black women, a gay Puerto Rican man and a one armed bus driver.

Tony Scott gets a lot of crap for his fast cuts and lighting techniques, but I feel that they are fine, not bad, not good, but keep the viewer on their toes. Man on Fire I felt was one of the best films of the last couple of years, and while Denzel carried that movie, the only person in Domino who could carry this movie was Mickey Rourke and the special came person. The cameo I wont give a way because the surprise was the highlight of the film, but Rourke was totally one dimensional. I have been a huge fan of all of his work, and I love that gritty, often comic presence to films, but Ed was so one dimensional of a tough guy character, even Mickey can’t bring sympathy to the character. Knightly, also gives a good, solid performance. The whole film is about her, so her and her body double are on screen 90% of the time. The character of Domino was confusing, as she is sometimes gritty tough broad, other times the sweetest, kindest person in the world. The total lack of continuity in her character I disliked. Also, about ¾ of the way through the movie, she becomes the leader of their trio, not the veteran Ed. Why she would be allowed in charge left me in the theatre actually asking what the heck was going on. The writing by Richard Kelly (Donnie Darko was Awesome) is OK, nothing special.

I feel the film as a whole is a mess of sloppy dialogue and bad characters. The acting is OK, and the direction if above average, but they couldn’t save this mess. If this movie was supposed to be the least bit believable, not as many buildings in the middle of Las Vegas would explode. I wanted to love this movie, but the numerous flaws, the way-to-long running time, and the twisted plots make me feel very down on the whole movie. God bless awesome cameos. 6/10