‘Domino’ fails
to live up to real life of bounty
hunter/model
By
Angela O’Brien
Online Forty-Niner
Contributing Writer
Keira Knightley stars in “Domino,” a sort-of-true story based on
the model-turned-bounty hunter who has probably gone through more goldfish in
her lifetime than eyeliner. While the characters and their background are based
on real people, the main plot of the film’s story is fabricated.
The movie begins in a Tarantino-esque fashion, with Domino telling her story,
starting from the end, to Officer Tyran (Lucy Liu). The audience is plunged into
Domino’s goldfish-obsessed world at full throttle. She loses her father
at a young age. Her money-grubbing mother bounces from husband to husband while
Domino attends boarding school. After her short-lived modeling career and getting
expelled from college, Domino finds herself under the wing of a superior bounty
hunter Ed (Mickey Rourke) and colleague Choco (Edgar Ramirez).
The audience is then taken through a whirlwind bounty hunting job that reads
like an episode of “Law and Order: Criminal Intent.” The number of
sub-plots was enough to make any conscious audience member’s head spin.
Tony Scott’s well-known directing style of fast scenes and quick cuts,
made the film feel like a 120-minute music video. While it was appropriate to
mimic Domino and squad’s fast, dangerous lives, the technique made the
thick, busy plot confusing and hard to follow.
Witty banter filled the script. However, the best dialogue had no real purpose
to the film as a whole. For example, a scene with Lateesha, the “world’s
youngest grandmother” (Mo’Nique Imes-Jackson) appears on the Jerry
Springer show to tell her theory and language of mixed race; she calls herself
a “blacktina” woman. This enjoyable scene received the most laughs,
but was of no use to the plot.
Knightley, though out of her prim and proper element, was convincing as a girl
who loved the adventure of a rough and tumble lifestyle. Her distinct voice made
the narration of the film intriguing; however her constant repetition of “heads
you live, tales you die,” referring to her reappearing lucky quarter was
monotonous.
The mere presence of legendary actors Rourke and Christopher Walken livened up
the dreary screen. However, cameos from Ian Ziering and Brian Austin Green of “Beverly
Hills 90210” fame left much to be desired. Their roles as “celebrity
hostages” felt brutally forced.
In June of this year, the real Domino Harvey died from an overdose of painkillers.
The most interesting part of the film was Scott’s homage to
Domino calling
cast members by their first name only.
Despite the film’s notable and favorable quirks, Domino receives indifferent
feelings from its viewers.
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