Domino

I liked 'Domino' even though the movie felt like a total mess. Describing the plot would be as much help to you as saying there was a beginning and an end, so I might as well just do that. I could tell you that Domino Harvey (Keire Knightley), once a model, has turned into a bounty hunter under the leadership of Ed Mosbey (Mickey Rourke). Also part of their team is Choco (Edgar Ramirez), who looks like a Latino version of Val Kilmer. The movie also involves mafia, stolen money, a man with an arm detached from his body, Ian Ziering and Brian Austin Green from 'Beverly Hills 90210' as themselves, sisters named Lashandra and Lashindra, and a Jerry Springer-sequence that could have been a comedy short on its own.

I liked all of it for multiple reasons, its energy being one of them. The movie feels like one long music video, even more than films like 'Trainspotting', 'Go' and 'The Rules of Attraction' (funny how they all deal with drugs in one way or another), but it never becomes exhausting. It is one of those films where style over substance succeeds, maybe not in great way, but simply in a way. I also liked it for the actors. Keira Knightley is convincing as a tough girl, even more admirable after just seeing her as a naughty but delicate girl in 'Pride & Prejudice'. Mickey Rourke is back with extraordinary performance in films such as 'Spun', 'Once Upon a Time in Mexico', 'Sin City', and now 'Domino'. Not only them, but also Ramirez, Delroy Lindo, Tom Waits and especially Christopher Walken (as the producer of a reality show the team is doing) give the movie something extra to enjoy. It is exactly what this movie is, enjoyable.

This was a pretty good action movie which I believe could have been better if the director (Tony Scott) hadn't kept cutting away to one scene after another. In my opinion this technique didn't help to enhance the film at all. If anything it gave it a choppy feel. Other than that though I thought the acting was really good. I enjoyed seeing Jacqueline Bisset (as "Sophie Wynn") who still looks like dynamite. Mickey Rourke ("Ed Moseby"), Edgar Ramirez ("Choco") and Delroy Lindo ("Claremont Williams") also performed quite well. Additionally, Keira Knightley (as "Domino Harvey") was excellent but it was Christopher Walken who was nothing less than sensational as the television producer named "Mark Heiss". He definitely gave this film an extra edge. At any rate, if you're wanting a good movie with plenty of action and humor then this is one you should definitely want to check out. I honestly think you'll like it.

If you go to this movie expecting something it isn't, you will be disappointed, as with any movie. This movie contains what Hemmingway described as the "iceberg effect". On the surface, its simply a cache of random movie clips smashed together to make a movie. If this would be written in a book, it would be a short story, because the action in the movie is very fast paced, and unless you actually try to catch it, the reasoning behind the plot (along with some subtle foreshadowing) can very well pass you by. Definitely a movie you will have to see twice in order to fully appreciate. Experimental Cinematography barely describes this movie. The camera-work and post production add much to the overall flavour of the film, making it quite artistic at some points and open to interpretation at others (something to be desired in American movies as of late). Although, at some parts it may get a little raunchy, gruesome and too heavy for some audiences, the movie never becomes completely unrealistic. The only aspect of the movie that I would write off as "needs improvement" is the soundtrack selection. No movie is ever good without a fitting soundtrack, and although the soundtrack is quite fitting, the opening is a little too long, and the other rap songs in the film really could have been replaced with something more appropriate (heavy, grungy rock or psychedelic electronica would have made this film a real trip). The flooding of imagery and dynamic... color palettes adds another "artistic" aspect to it, also combined with the events that happen throughout the film, this is not a movie you can miss any part of and still understand. However, that also makes it much more of a desirable film to watch, and not one you'll quickly get bored of. 8.5/10

Domino Harvey (Keira Knightley) is a tough bounty hunter being interrogated by FBI criminal psychologist Taryn Mills (Lucy Liu). Domino is trying to recover $10 million of casino boss Drake Bishop (Dabney Coleman)'s money stolen from an armored truck. She lost her beloved actor father as a child and stuck with her gold-digging mother (Jacqueline Bisset). She got tired of her life and joins bail bondsman Claremont Williams III (Delroy Lindo), her tough boss Ed Moseby (Mickey Rourke), Choco (Edgar Ramirez) and their Afghan driver Alf (Riz Abbasi). Claremont runs the armored truck company. Lateesha Rodriguez (Mo'Nique) is one of his mistresses who is his inside girl in the DMV. Also the group is being filmed by reality TV producer Mark Heiss (Christopher Walken).

The movie starts off as an edgy heist story. I like the crazy visual style from director Tony Scott. Things are working more or less. It's overly complicated but I'm willing to follow. Then they pile on too much. The reality TV bit is the straw that broke the camel's back. Mo'Nique has a funny scene on Jerry Springer's show. Overall, there are just too many crazy things going on. I get tired of the random outlandish turns this movie makes.

Domino opens up with the title character being interrogated, and through the voice-over narration she informs us, "This is the part where I tell them to go to hell – that I'm not talking until my lawyer arrives." And two seconds later she tells the interrogating officer, "I'll tell you everything." This sets the tone and rhythm for the rest of the movie, and lets us know the narrative isn't afraid to contradict itself. Soon we jump to the setup of the film's ending, then we jump back to the beginning of Domino's story, and then we jump to an important plot point that won't come into play until twenty minutes later. Literalists and traditionalists, please stop watching the film immediately. So in the spirit of the film, I'll come back to this point in a little bit and probably say something completely different. If you're with me, you'll understand. If not, get lost.

Regarding the style: I never thought I'd see the day when I'd like a movie with a music video meets reality TV vibe. I've hated – no, scratch that – I've loathed films that would merely flirt with the idea. I've stopped caring entirely about plot/characters and any redeeming values because the style has driven me up a wall in those other films. Here, though, Tony Scott doesn't think twice about embracing it, and at first it didn't sit well with me as I remembered all the failures that came before Domino. But then something happened . . .

Mel Brooks, in describing his overboard ideas of comedy, once said, "What's the point of going all the way to the bell without ringing it? Let's ring the damn bell." Maybe my problem with this MTV/Reality-series style of film-making has been the fact that every other filmmaker was content to go part way – to just flirt with the idea – but here at last Tony Scott rings the bell.

And holy crap! When I started to listen it actually sounds good! Real freakin' good.

Perhaps another reason why it works in this film is because Tony Scott understands the potency behind each of a film's individual elements. And he's not content to let the music, editing, on screen performance, Kiera Knightley's voice-over, and on-screen text tell their small part of the story and work together as a whole; Domino uses each of its given elements to simultaneously tell their own version of the tale from beginning to end in its entirety. It's a full-on frontal assault of the senses and gives the viewer the feeling five people are telling their own interpretation of the exact same story at the exact same time – talking over one another, contradicting one another, interrupting each other, going back and correcting themselves.

You've heard of Howard Hawk's overlapping dialogue? Tony Scott gives you overlapping cinematic narrative elements. The genius and the magic is that Tony Scott masterfully maintains comprehensible order through all this narrative chaos, and somehow Tony Scott makes it all work.

Also, the film's stylization has another point behind – it serves as a reflection (dare I say an alternate, yet effective, means of character development?) for Domino Harvey, her attitude, and the world she lives in. This movie is not content simply telling us about the world, it's a part of that world too, and for two hours it wants to bring us there. Or to draw an analogy – you can listen to a book being read in a flat monotone or you can listen to it being read with different voices for each character, and the narrator gets up and acts out the story too. Domino goes that extra distance.

The plot? I'd be wasting my time if I tried. Domino Harvey is a former model turned bounty hunter. And the movie, itself, is an action-adventure thriller. You don't need to know anything more. The point of Domino isn't on the contents of the plot, the point of Domino resides in the style in which that plot is told (and it is told very effectively). Or in other words, a summarization is nearly pointless. If you need to "get" the plot, you're not going to "get" Domino at all.

Domino is a style, an attitude, a perspective. It's a film willing to tell its audience to either come along for the ride or get lost. Based on a true story? Kiera's voice over says it, "If you want to know what *really* happened . . . get lost!" (note: stated with significantly harsher language that IMDb doesn't want to accept in a review, but you get the idea.)