Domino
Story by Richard Kelly and Steve Barancik; screenplay by Richard Kelly
Directed by Tony Scott
New Line Cinema
2005
Rating:


Tony Scott used to make straightforward action movies that expressed the anxiety in homosocial bonds through violence. Scott now seems even less concerned with narrative and character development than with how many different angles and editing techniques he can fit into a second of screen time to create the most visually assaultive cinematic experience possible.

Though not as obscene as 2004's "Man on Fire," "Domino," Scott's latest, is far more difficult to endure because Scott's style unfolds, as one character says, like "a ferret on crystal meth" that takes mescaline as chaser. "Domino" supposedly tells the "sort of" true story of Domino Harvey (Keira Knightley), the daughter of "The Manchurian Candidate" actor Laurence Harvey and model who decided to give up her 90210 lifestyle to become a bounty hunter with rough-and-tumble Ed Mosbey (Mickey Rourke) and Choco (Edgar Ramirez). Ignoring what drove Domino to such violent antisocial behavior, the story mostly focuses on a heist gone wrong involving a casino owner, a mob boss, DMV workers and a reality show for The WB.

Because the script was written by "Donnie Darko" auteur Richard Kelly, one hopes there was something coherent and substantial to the story on the page. Whatever it was didn't make it onto the screen. Scott's style is so obtrusive, so ugly, it even keeps a gun-toting Knightley from appearing sexy.

In a desperate attempt to mirror the "Natural Born Killers" visual design (is Scott jealous he directed the Quentin Tarantino-scripted "True Romance" instead of Oliver Stone's epochal movie?), every shot is tie-died, sped up, slowed down, reversed and overexposed as if in an attempt to explode the projector. At least it doesn't seem possible to take this aesthetic any further. If Scott tries, his next movie might just be a 120-minute-long shot of a multi-colored strobe light.

Posted Tuesday, October 18, 2005

Link to this review:
http://filmzeus.pressbin.com/film/domino