Domino (2005)

With the onset of autumn, Tony Scott brings us Domino, the story about real life bounty hunter Domino Harvey. Domino is more of a biography than you might expect, telling us the story of how Harvey ended up being a bounty hunter and why she wanted to become one in the first place.

After being a model for a couple of years in Los Angeles Domino decides to become a bounty hunter when she stumbles along Ed and Choco, two of the best bounty hunters in the city who work for Claremont Williams, a bail bondsman. After trying to fund his granddaughter’s surgery, Williams sends Domino, Ed and Choco out to retrieve three hundred thousand dollars in an underground mission. During this period the bounty hunters are being filmed by Christopher Walken for his new WB reality show. When the mob gets involved in the mission, all hell breaks loose.

 

Smarts

69%

Domino can be a very confusing film if you don’t know what you are getting into. Domino is written by Richard Kelly and Steve Barancik. Not only has Kelly written Domino, but he has also written and directed one of the most confusing films of the 21^st century, Donnie Darko. Although Domino is not nearly as confusing as Donnie Darko, it sways that way during several different scenes. From beginning the film at the ending and ending the film at the beginning, some people may be baffled.

I have to say that I think Keira Knightley is a brilliant actress. She plays Domino Harvey so well that about 75% through the movie when she is with Choco yelling, "Has it dawned on you that I don't fucking speak Spanish?! I don't fucking speak it! For fuck's sake!" it will ran a chill down my spine, so intense was her emotion. When they show Domino at a younger age when she was fulfilling her modeling career and living at a sorority you could tell that she was different from all the girls. That's what makes this film so intriguing and doesn't just make it another old biography. Right after coming off of a huge success in Frank Miller’s Sin City, Mickey Rourke gives another wonderful performance as Ed, one of the top bounty hunters in L.A.

If you thought the deserts of Nevada couldn't get any grittier think again.  Tony Scott, with the help of Daniel Mindel, brings his visually stunning camera shots and various filters employed in films like his Enemy of the State and Spy Game to the big screen once again and gives the action a down and dirty quality. From the Nevada desert to the Las Vegas stratosphere, the locations in Domino are very nice. They are all used for a reason, the Nevada desert sets up the beginning of the film, and the stratosphere sets up the end.

Most directors of our time have their own style that they use in their movies. Possibly one of the most recognizable is Tony Scott. Scott showed us what grittiness in films is really like in 2004’s Man on Fire. Showing how far a man can go just to get one little girl. Like Man on Fire, Domino brings that same sense of style. Some may say that it works perfectly, others may disagree. I for one appreciate Scott's style even if his overall execution is somewhat imperfect.

Although the film is supposed to take place around the year 1995 it feels decidedly present day. The real Domino Harvey died in July 2005 though, and Tony Scott gives us his best attempt at portraying her legacy.

 

Popcorn

65%

Domino is a fun popcorn film if nothing else.  Maybe twenty or so films come along in a year that are actually just plain fun to watch and Domino is one of them. With action, suspense, and romance, Domino has all the elements of a fun film.

With gruesome violence such as trying to retrieve a safe combination off of a man's arm and having to shoot it off to a sex scene in the desert, Domino can be weird at times. I am probably one of many people that do not fully understand Tony Scott and his ways of filmmaking. If I had to use one word to sum up Scott’s filmmaking it would be "unusual". If Scott wasn't given the job of making Domino and it was given to someone else the film's style and overall appearance would be drastically different.  Miles apart even.

About a quarter of the film is filled with useless scenes which have nothing to do with the plot. One of those scenes in particular is when Lateesha (Monique) goes onto Jerry Springer and talks about herself being a grandmother at the age of twenty eight and how she is a ‘blacktino’ half African American half Latino. During this scene my friend and I were looking at each other hopelessly confused as to what was going on. This aspect is the film's biggest downfall; how the film sometimes drifts away from being a biography and into its various subplots is an off-putting distraction.

 

Final

Although Domino is more entertaining than Man on Fire that's not saying a whole lot. Tony Scott needs to begin to step into a new genre like his brother Ridley and try to recapture some of the brilliance he showed in his great movie, True Romance. Domino is an enjoyable action thriller with some elements of comedy and romance thrown into the mix. Keira Knightley and Mickey Rourke give awesome performances in what, unfortunately, winds up feeling like a dragged out, letdown of a film.