DOMINO

The way critics were crapping all over this movie last year, you’d think it was some kind of horrifically unwatchable mess devoid of merit and lacking any entertainment value. Well, I may be in the minority, but I’m here to tell you: it’s really not that bad. 

In fact, I quite liked it. The key to enjoying director Tony Scott’s frenetic, often-spastic would-be biopic is to regard it as a glorified experimental film. It’s weird and wild and a bit like storytelling via attention-deficit disorder, but it’s oddly fitting for a movie about Domino Harvey – the enigmatic model-turned-bounty hunter who died shortly before the film’s release.

Do a Google search for “Domino Harvey” and you’ll be hard pressed to find out much. Just about everything you can dig up is of a questionably true nature: Was she a lesbian or bisexual? Was she ever really a working model? How much of what’s been reported is true and how much is fabricated (by Harvey herself or others) remains a mystery, so it should come as no surprise that, likewise, the film – from which Harvey reportedly withdrew her support and participation – isn’t so much a biography as a mish-mash of a character study that doesn’t provide many answers or much insight.

But that’s okay.

A searing Keira Knightley – with her cropped hair and menacing sneer and whirling nun-chucks and midriff-bearing outfits that put her toned tummy on display – stars as Domino Harvey, and the film is told in flashback as she angrily recounts pivotal moments in her life to a very business-like investigator (Lucy Liu) obsessed with sharpening pencils. Jumping violently back and forth in time, the story chronicles her troubled adolescence and her eventual foray into the world of bounty hunting. The waify Domino straps on the big guns and teams with grizzly, beefy veteran Ed (Mickey Rourke), and his partner, Choco (Edgar Ramirez), to start her new career. They’re a bizarre little family, but their dynamic works, and their friendship unites them in the face of a bungled job that involves, among other things, $10 million in missing money, 90210 stars Brian Austin Greene and Ian Ziering (as themselves), and a bunch of thieves dressed as First Ladies.

But plot and character development aren’t as important as the film’s visual style and Knightley’s kick-ass performance. Tony Scott has created a cinematic experience that’s more like an art project than a narrative tale – it’s mind-numbingly unique in its execution. If you’re not into films like Tarnation, then maybe this one won’t be your thing, either. But if you’re up for what can only be described as an outside-the-box structure, give it a shot!

To her credit, Knightley takes her role and runs with it. Despite the more demure roles she’s known for, she takes this character by the throat and embodies her wholly and completely. Think Knightley can only prance about in corsets or bat her eyelashes in rom-coms? Think again. Watching her kick asses and take names was a blast! (As an aside: anyone’s who looking to see Keira Knightley naked need look no further than this film’s misplaced and unnecessary love scene…which, oddly enough, involves Domino and a man, not another woman.) 

Domino is not without its flaws (character development? nada! clarity? fuggetaboudit!), but they’re certainly not severe enough to merit the overwhelming negative reviews it received during its theatrical run. Maybe seeing on DVD makes one more forgiving. Maybe watching the extras helped me understand the intentions of the filmmakers. Or maybe I was just in the mood for a movie starring Keira wielding a big shotgun and looking all butch and mean.

Dunno. But give it a second look the next time you wander past it at the video store. You might be surprised.