Review of Domino

Introduction

I Am A Bounty Hunter, the lady introduces herself as. Well, I am a DVD Reviewer, so there. Tony Scott (Ridley`s Little Brother) has made a baffling biopic of the model-turned-bounty-hunter daughter of sixties movie star Laurence Harvey that overdoses on style while paying no attention to narrative.

The movie is dedicated to the memory of Domino Harvey, who died while the movie was in production. The featurette about her life included in the extras glosses over the circumstances, describing her death as a "heart attack" while other sources indicate an accidental overdose of painkillers. Twenty-year-old Kiera Knightley, fresh from Pride and Prejudice and the latest instalments of the Pirates Of The Caribbean franchise, plays the thirty-six-year-old Domino. Hard and pretty unsympathetic, Ms Knightley proves there is more to her than playing heroines in period-piece bodice-rippers. She is supported in her bounty-huntering by Mickey Rourke, who looks even more dissolute than he did when he made 9½ Weeks with Kim Basinger.

If you`re expecting some kind of "Fall Guy" type romp with Kiera Knightley doing a fair impression of Lee Majors, then you`re in for a disappointment. Written by Donnie Darko scribe Richard Kelly, the movie is a no holds barred action piece that steps regularly over the line into cinematic brutality where arms get shot off. Also, if you hate that "Piracy Is A Crime" trail most of the Studios stick on the start of DVDs, you might have a problem with the visual style of this movie. Thankfully the trail is absent from this release, otherwise you might not know where the trail ends and the movie starts. Visually, Domino is either a triumphant experiment in style or a complete train wreck depending on your point of view. Director Tony Scott has thrown every visual trick in the advert-maker`s tool kit at the movie - hand-cranking, undercranking, multiple-pass exposure, colour-reversal, over-exposure, under-exposure and a whole host of laboratory shenanigans to play with the photographed image. The aim is - as described in one of the extras - "Marlboro On Acid", echoing the look of Tony Scott`s high-art commercials for Marlboro cigarettes in the US. The look is supposed to be Domino`s acid-fuelled point of view and as such is full of vivid colours, streaking and blurring images and fast and slow motion. Unfortunately, all it really does is scream "MTV generation" at the top of its voice.

Video

The movie is presented in its theatrical 2.35:1 as anamorphic widescreen and the transfer is spotless and colourful, giving you what must have been the theatrical experience with less of the eyestrain and the headache a big screen must have provided. The sheer trickiness of the picture constantly pulls you away from engaging with the characters onscreen. Maybe that`s a blessing.

Audio

Eardrum-shredding DD5.1 and DTS - lock the cat out of the room before you run the movie.

Features

The movie comes with a small bouquet of extras - there are two audio commentary tracks, one with director Tony Scott and writer Richard Kelly, and a second made up from script notes and story development meetings with Scott, Kelly, Zach Schiff-Abrams and Tom Waits. "I Am A Bounty Hunter: Domino Harvey`s Life" which introduces you to the real lady and has an optional commentary by Richard Kelly and Domino Harvey. "Bounty Hunting On Acid: Evolution Of A Visual Style" which goes into Tony Scott`s migraine-inducing photography for the movie. There are seven deleted scenes and two trailers. Most of the content is fully subtitled for the hard of hearing.

Conclusion

The movie tanked at the box office last year, but maybe its release on DVD will be its salvation. The DVD experience must be considerably less impacting on the senses than the big-screen one, but it still comes across as a bad acid trip. In the film`s defence, there`s enough sheer ballsiness and weirdness for it to be this year`s crap-film cult hit.