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Domino Harvey (Keira Keithley), a bounty hunter, is in prison and is being cross-examined by an
FBI agent Taryn Mills (LucyLiu).
Taryn warns her to tell the truth as the evaluation of her testimony may set her free or implicate her in recent gun battles and other criminal activities. Her story begins with experiences of a wealthy boarder brought up mostly in various "best schools", who eventually gets bored and hankers for some excitement. She enrolls in a seminar for bounty hunters run by Claremont Williams (Delroy Lindo), a bail bondsman, top bounty hunter Ed Mosley (Mickey Rourke) and Choco (Edgar Ramirez), a Latino toughie. Because of her beauty and persona, Domino at first is not taken seriously but later proves herself an asset to the bounty hunting team, also joined by Alf (Rizwen Abbas), an Afglan knowledgeable in explosives. They consider themselves professionals who get paid for tracking down dangerous criminals and bringing them to justice. Domino gets an award as the Bounty Hunter of the year 2003. This inspires Mark Heiss (Christopher Walken) a TV producer to hire the team for a TV reality show. All goes well until their last job where they are supposed to recover $10 million but William's girl friend puts in a monkey wrench because she needs money for her sick grandchild. The situation gets complicated when they get mixed up with underworld characters pursued by the FBI. In the ensuing firefights, Domino escapes alive but can she convince the lawmen she is no criminal?
Domino is inspired by the life of Domino Harvey, the late daughter of the movie star Lawrence Harvey and the fashion model Pauline Stone (Jacqueline Bisset) but renamed Sophil Wynn in the movie like other known personalities in Domino's life. Said to be based on a true story, the film has been so embellished for cinematic purposes perhaps, that one cannot exactly tell where reality ends and where fiction begins. For instance, it seems an exaggeration to cut off a man's arm and transport it just to have access to the tattooed number combination of a safe. Domino's narrative is not linear and jumps from the present to the far past to the present to the recent past and so on and is difficult to follow. The film is super fast as it flashes the images on screen too briefly, not even perhaps for a second too long, and this style of filmmaking can be exhausting for the viewer when employed for almost two hours. But it gives the film such kinetic energy that can fuel excitement. Keithley makes Domino leap from the screen with much clarity, one can almost imagine her really doing her thing in front of you. Mikey Rourke as Ed, Domino's mentor, and others in the ensemble give adequate performances.
Domino is adult material and definitely not for young impressionable minds. Almost every line of the script is loaded with four letter words, oaths and other vulgar expressions. There is nudity, sex, crime and much violence. The bounty hunters are fearless, focused and determined. For the very young, looking for heroes to emulate, these qualities maybe inspiring but the characters seem amoral in their attitudes. It is true they bring criminals to justice but they are more motivated by material rewards than anything else. If Domino had shown that the bounty hunters, though after the money, were also driven by the desire to serve the community, the film would probably be more substantial.
(Date Reviewed: 03 November 2005)
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