The Bottom Line: Keira Won’t Fall Down with ‘Domino’

Why would a delicate little thing like Keira Knightley want to be a bounty hunter? Perhaps the young English lass wants “to have a little fun,” to quote her gun-toting, butt-kicking tomboy in Domino. Maybe. But there’s more to it than that. Two years after demonstrating she can Bend It Like Beckham, Knightley‘s trying to score on her own. And she’s mounting an aggressive campaign here and at home to prove she doesn’t need Johnny Depp or Orlando Bloom by her side. So far, so good. The umpteenth version of Pride and Prejudice is already a major smash on the other side of the Atlantic , having taken $17 million in three weekends. Knightley‘s Love Actually co-star Colin Firth might be considered the definitive Mr. Darcy, but British audiences clearly have taken a fancy to Matthew MacFadyen. And it doesn’t seem to matter that Jane Austen’s novel was filmed recently as the Bollywood musical Bride & Prejudice. Pride and Prejudice doesn’t open domestically in limited release until Nov. 11, but given its literary roots, it should prove an easier sell than Domino. As its trippy trailer suggests, Domino is a fun but chaotic mess that’s built around an unsympathetic character who eventually died in trouble with the law. Billed as “sort of” a true story, director Tony Scott‘s raucous tribute to girl power casts Knightley as the wayward daughter of supermodel Paulene Stone and the late British actor Laurence Harvey. Few 20 year olds like Knightley know Laurence Harvey, not unless they felt compelled to watch the original version of The Manchurian Candidate after seeing Denzel Washington‘s remake. So Scott sidesteps this by chronicling Domino Harvey’s transformation from a fish out of water in Beverly Hills to a lean, mean fighting machine.

Here’s the tricky part. Domino doesn’t go out of its way to acknowledge Harvey ‘s death in June at age 35 from an accidental overdose of painkillers, per the Los Angeles County Department of Coroner. The film merely offers a shot of the real Harvey and a dedication before the end credits. And prior to her death, Harvey was waiting to go on trial on federal drug trafficking charges. Harvey’s death will stir up more interest in Domino than her family tree, but her arrest certainly undermines Domino‘s heroic portrayal of Harvey and could harm the film at the box office. At least New Line had the good sense not to exploit Harvey ‘s untimely death. Days after Harvey overdosed, New Line moved Domino–previously intended as a summer release, but pushed back to Nov. 4–to Aug. 19 purportedly to avoid a clash with Pride and Prejudice. No matter the reason, the change in release date made New Line look like it was taking advantage of a tragedy. Wisely, New Line delayed Domino to Oct. 14. Given that Harvey was not a household name, audiences won’t arrive with a preconceived notion of whether Knightley‘s street-smart and tough enough to play a real-life bounty hunter. Unfortunately, given Tony Scott‘s preoccupation with Domino‘s unsettled narrative and orchestrated mayhem, he loses Knightley amid the gunfire. We know Knightley can bust skulls–see King Arthur and Pirates of the Caribbean. But Scott doesn’t ask much of Knightley other than to sneer, smoke, shoot and break noses. If Domino fails, Knightley‘s has Pride & Prejudice to fall back on. But she’s better off boarding the Pirates sequels with two solo hits to her name. She can’t be too safe after the failures of King Arthur and The Jacket. Another failure–especially one that bears just her name above the title–means Knightley‘s almost back to what she once was: a pretty face in the crowd. But a one-two punch places Knightley in a unique situation. She will have done something that most her fellow countrywomen–including Kate Winslet, Rachel Weisz and Catherine Zeta-Jones–failed to do in their 20s: open a film on the strength of her name, and her name alone. Then again, hitting it big with Domino and the Pirates sequels could also prove disadvantageous. The last thing she needs is to be dismissed being too butch. So Knightley should take note of how Zeta-Jones‘ has juggled Entrapment and the Zorro series with Chicago and The Terminal. Knightley‘s spunk is part of her charm. But, as Pride and Prejudice will likely reveal, she can do no wrong pulling her punches every now and then.