Ghost
18 Oct 2005, 12:19 AM
The reviews for the Tony Scott film, Domino, with Keira Knightley as the society girl turned fashion model Domino Harvey, have been nothing short of scalding. Incoherent and style-over-substance are the most popular charges against it. A couple of high-end reviewers have given it a good mark -- namely Ebert and Manohla Dargis in the NYT. I really liked the film, flawed as it is in places. I'll go even further. I think it's both intelligent and substantive, which nobody else is saying.
The problem is that while reviewers seem good at plucking main ideas out of texts, but I'm not sure they're as good at figuring out structural innovations and how those can create substance. To cut to the chase, the film's story is a flimsy lie told by Domino to get a rise out of an FBI agent. Of course, it's incoherent -- most lies are, particularly when the liar doesn't expect to have to live with the lie being told. It would make less sense if it were coherent. But for Domino telling her tall tale does two things: it writes a fantasy-rich TV-roided self-legend, and it keeps her own true story to herself, where it can't be used for entertainment value in the world of exploitation that lies at the heart of the film. She performs an act of self-mythology that doubles as an act of self-preservation in a culture of exploitation. The movie also seems to me to be a subversion of the biopic, which is another story.
Anyway, the movie also happens to be massively entertaining and,as Ebert notes, alive. It should have gotten better reviews just on that basis. Would love to hear what others thought about it. I hope GringoTex will chime in, as he's a stuanch defender of Scott's last film, Man on Fire, which also has taken a critical beating.
The problem is that while reviewers seem good at plucking main ideas out of texts, but I'm not sure they're as good at figuring out structural innovations and how those can create substance. To cut to the chase, the film's story is a flimsy lie told by Domino to get a rise out of an FBI agent. Of course, it's incoherent -- most lies are, particularly when the liar doesn't expect to have to live with the lie being told. It would make less sense if it were coherent. But for Domino telling her tall tale does two things: it writes a fantasy-rich TV-roided self-legend, and it keeps her own true story to herself, where it can't be used for entertainment value in the world of exploitation that lies at the heart of the film. She performs an act of self-mythology that doubles as an act of self-preservation in a culture of exploitation. The movie also seems to me to be a subversion of the biopic, which is another story.
Anyway, the movie also happens to be massively entertaining and,as Ebert notes, alive. It should have gotten better reviews just on that basis. Would love to hear what others thought about it. I hope GringoTex will chime in, as he's a stuanch defender of Scott's last film, Man on Fire, which also has taken a critical beating.