Rough stuff for Keira

Tony Scott is a film-maker with an enviable technique. But the use to which he puts it in this flashily fractured tale passes all understanding. Nor does he do his hopeless miscast star, Keira Knightley, any favours.

In a fictionalised real-life story, she plays the part of Domino, daughter of British actor Laurence Harvey and free spirit, who gives up her career in modelling to become a bounty hunter and bail recovery agent, living perilously near the edge.

Knightley tries her best to suggest an adrenaline junkie with a privileged background. But her determinedly middle-class English accent and porcelain looks make it very difficult to believe in her. She acts against Mickey Rourke, Delroy Lindo, Edgar Ramirez and Christopher Walken, all of whom are more used to this sort of rough stuff. And it shows.

Stylistically, the film can't keep still for a moment. It is hysterically edited, shot like it's determined to show what a camera can do when manipulated bya maniac and directed as though story must be smothered by technique. It's a wonder anyone knew what was going on. I can't say I did.

Domino
Cert: cert15