Reel Reviews: “Domino” Rated R, Grade: D-
Although it features occasional instances of dauntless wit and vibrant style, “Domino” is an exhaustively jarring, shamelessly incoherent mess of a film.
This is assuming that the pretentious biopic of model-turned-bounty-hunter Domino Harvey can even qualify as a film. With nauseating cinematography that recalls a cocaine-induced PowerPoint presentation, dialogue as intuitive as a brick and character development that is relegated to single-sentence narration, “Domino” is more like a crude, tactless movie trailer than a full-fledged motion picture.
Loosely based on the true story of a young Ford model from a wealthy family that eventually garnished fame as a Los Angelus bounty hunter, “Domino” attempts to tell a story that ultimately gets buried under layers of botched editing, a narrative intended for those with no attention span – complete with lines of dialogue that repeat like an uninspired clothing advertisement – and plot holes thicker than the prostitute-inspired eye-liner curiously worn by all of the film’s female characters. Shifting between the events that lead to the eventual capture of Domino, her cadre of underdeveloped outlaws and the examination of the tomboyish mercenary by an unrelenting interrogator, the film establishes likeable characters only to have them violently discarded for two hours of perpetually green-tinted music video footage. By the time the celluloid catastrophe reaches its frustratingly obscured climax, the audience won’t really know what’s going on, how Domino’s efforts connect with a zealous grandmother that appears on the “Jerry Springer Show” in the middle of the film or why they just wasted seven dollars.
Despite the film’s undeniably abundant shortcomings, a few performances may bring viewers some retributive amusement, but they certainly don’t save the cinematic disaster from irrevocable failure. Keira Knightley has clearly become accustomed to elegantly belligerent female leads with films like “Bend it Like Beckham” and “Pirates of the Caribbean” and she seems right at home as the antagonistic title character. Known for playing brawny tough guys brimming with testosterone and hard-boiled cynicism, Mickey Rourke was also the ideal choice for Domino’s gruff mentor. Christopher Walken’s welcome performance as a TV executive with ambitions to put Domino on a reality show also lends the film some humorous moments, particularly during scenes with interaction between Domino’s troupe and “90210” alumni Ian Ziering and Brian Austin Green.
While these droll portrayals and quirky moments don’t contribute to the voluminous deficiencies of the movie as a whole, the fact remains that “Domino” is a pompous, haphazardly inane attempt at exceptional cinema and it isn’t worth shelling out the cash or wasting the time required to view it.
Mack Perry is a critic for the Statesman. Comments can be sent to him at mackp@cc.usu.edu.