Review of Domino (1973) by Jason R — 04 Sep 2010

Part biopic, part sendup. Keira Knightley has always had the types of roles where she gets dirty, mean, and pissed off. This is one of those roles, so she slides right into that comfort zone, giving the grittiness that a person like Domino Harvey requires in order to be portrayed accurately.

The film as a whole gives us a good enough show, and some bang for the buck, but it comes up short in the way it is directed, as well as using the color schemes it does in many of its set pieces. This does bring the aforementioned grit, but when trying to handle scenes like the closing gunfight, it is difficult to balance the style of filmmaking you have embraced from the beginning while making it possible to watch a powerful action scene such as that without the two conflicting at some point.

The disjointed camera work as such does more harm than good, and though it does embrace a certain uniqueness in that sort of way, like Cloverfield it needed to back off a touch in order to keep the viewer locked in.

The circular storytelling around the interrogation is nothing new, certainly, but the same circularity that occurs within the flashbacks forces the viewer to keep track of what's happening when, which is not entirely a bad thing.

Sitting back and turning your brain off is not an option with this movie, and Domino's narration makes sure that you are on board. In the end, it doesn't matter what's true. Some of it is, some of it isn't.

But a good story is told no matter what.