Domino

Domino is a so-so action movie, something like a cross between The Italian Job and The Fast and the Furious, but without the humor, or the cars. It stars Keira Knightley, who spends a lot of time posing and pouting sexily. This doesn't make me like her character, but it does seem like an accurate way to play someone who is a violent tomboy and who used to be a fashion model.

Domino Harvey is a sulky, impetuous, and parentally neglected girl who eventually discovers her destiny as a bounty hunter (which, I was surprised to discover, is an actual profession). The writers made a great decision in choosing a major turning point in Domino's life as the focus of the movie, but that is the end of the good screenwriting. The movie starts near the end, not in a clever way, but simply as a ploy to try to make a more engaging movie. The only reason it works is because you have to think to figure out what is happening in a movie that otherwise doesn't require any thinking.

Domino tries to be existentialist and philosphical with the repeated phrase "Heads you live, tails you die," and ends with moderately poignant discussion of destiny, and a shot of the real Domino Harvey, whose life the movie is based on...Sort of.

My main complaint about this film is the sensational, achronological beginning. The movie starts with a violent and gory raid on a dingy trailer, leading the viewers to believe that the characters are violent criminals. In fact, the three main characters are well-rounded and, one might say, even professional. They do things a little on the gray side of the law, but not exactly the black side, and they are certainly not sadistic.

I was looking for a relatively mindless movie to watch last night, and this movie delivered. I would have been happier watching something else, but it was at least entertaining enough for me to stick with it till the end.