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'Domino' is never boring, but not very convincing

"Domino" opens with a very suspect phrase: "This movie is based on a true story."

Not a good sign, I thought. Those words are usually code for, "A true story gave us the idea for this movie, but then we just made up the bulk of it."

So my hopes perked up when I saw that the full disclaimer for "Domino" said: "This movie is based on a true story. Sort of."

New Line Cinema 'Domino' C The verdict: Interesting and entertaining... but only sort of. Director: Tony Scott Starring: Keira Knightley, Mickey Rourke, Edgar Ramirez, Rizwan Abbasi, Ian Ziering, Christopher Walken Run time: 120 minutes Release date: Oct. 14, 2005 Rating: R for strong violence, pervasive language, sexual content/nudity and drug use. See showtimes On the web Official movie site View the trailer    Trailers require Quicktime Rate 'Domino'   Go see it   Make it a matinee   Wait to rent   Don't bother Voter Limit: Once per Hour View Poll Results

I liked that clever touch. Maybe it meant the movie would put a spin on the old cliches.

Alas, the only significant spin that came out of "Domino" was my head, dizzy from the movie's visual overkill. It has a handful of inspired scenes, and it's certainly never boring, but it's not very convincing, either.

Domino Harvey was a real person — a former model and the daughter of actor Laurence Harvey, who is most famous as the title character of 1962's "The Manchurian Candidate." Disaffected as a youth, she made a bizarre turn from modeling into bounty hunting. The movie tells a heavily fictionalized version of her journey before she died from a drug overdose earlier this year, after the movie was finished. It is dedicated to her memory.

Unfortunately, the film does not serve Harvey's memory well, in that it doesn't tell me much more about her than I could glean from the trailers: wild child lives hedonistic life as a bounty hunter before it all goes south.

The movie forgets to answer the follow-up question: So what?

For much of the film, Domino, played by Keira Knightley, is like a bit player in her own story. Director Tony Scott does the character no favors by overwhelming the movie with the same manic technique he first used in "Man on Fire." That means loads of jump cuts mixed with double and triple exposures, changes in film stock, stylized subtitles and a camera that won't sit still. By the end of "Domino's" first half-hour, I was worn out.

The actors give the film a lot of grit, particularly the always-lively Knightley, who throws herself into the role with wild abandon. Mickey Rourke continues the career renaissance he started in "Sin City" with strong work as the bounty hunter honcho who is Domino's father figure.

Meanwhile, Christopher Walken does his best Christopher Walken, serving up another of his often imitated but never duplicated crazies. His section of the movie, in which he plays a harried producer of a reality show that tails Domino and her buddies, is the film's highlight, a wild and funny satire of celebrity culture, not unlike Oliver Stone's "Natural Born Killers."

As it happens, Scott has fallen into the same trap that snared Stone after he made "Killers." Like Stone before him, Scott has taken a style that served him well, then made it the be-all and end-all of his movies until the point got lost. As hyper as "Man on Fire" was, Scott could at least fall back on the emotional pull created by Denzel Washington and Dakota Fanning.

There's not enough of that pull in "Domino." Style smothers substance. The result is a movie that's interesting and entertaining... but only sort of.