Domino

Bounty of Quick Action Scenes

Main Cast: Kiera Knightley, Mickey Rourke, Edgar Ramirez, Delroy Lindo

Director: Tony Scott

Taking up the bulk of this film are quick, TV-commercial shots, overlapping dialogue, flashing colors, and offset text. As someone past (well-past) the early half of 30 I find this type of filmmaking extremely annoying. Is today’s youth’s attention span so short that this type of cut-cut-cut-music-speak-cut-speak absolutely required? Or is it “cool” to film this way? Truly, I don’t know. I guess I’m not cool.

Annoying camera work aside, this action-biography is relatively well done. At least the acting is skilled, and there is a plot. Following the life (. sort of) of Domino Harvey, a model-turned-bounty hunter, we start at the end, where she is bloodied and in jail, meeting with an officer of the law (Lucy Liu). We then trace back how she ended up in the here and now.

Bored with her life and looking for some fun, Domino takes an entry course in bounty hunting. Right off the bat she learns something about the profession, which I will not spoil, and meets up with her mentor (Rourke) and a young warrior-perhaps-future-lover (Ramirez), who naturally resents her at first. This sets up an extended family she never had, as they go about doing what bounty hunters do.

While watching Knightley is always a treat for me, I must admit that I didn’t quite get into this film. It was okay as action flicks go, but it doesn’t have much weight. But if you don’t mind fast-moving pretty colors and plenty of action, and can take the “cool” camera cuts, then you could do worse than this. Faint praise, indeed.