DOMINO (2019) *

Brian De Palma is one of my favorite filmmakers of all time.  Even his misses are usually more interesting than most director’s best stuff.  The same can’t be said for his latest effort, Domino.  I can’t quite say it’s De Palma’s worst movie, but it’s definitely his most lackluster (and boring).

Nikolaj Coster-Waldau stars as a Copenhagen cop who accidentally leaves his gun at home when he goes on duty.  Because of his forgetfulness, his partner is killed and the murderer (Eriq Ebouaney) escapes.  He naturally vows to avenge his partner’s death.  The only problem is the killer just so also happens to be doing the dirty work for a shady CIA man (Guy Pearce) who will stop at nothing to make sure his asset is well protected.

It’s always fun to see De Palma channeling Hitchcock.  Domino kicks off with a blatant copy of Vertigo in which the hero hangs by his fingernails from a high rooftop.  On paper, this should’ve been gangbusters, but the execution feels tired, as if De Palma is only going through the motions.  Even his trademark use of split screen is a bust here, mostly due to the fact that one half of the screen looks like something out of a first-person video game.  Likewise, the score feels like a pale imitation of past Hitchcock scores.  To make matters worse, the music is often halfhearted and rarely matches the action on screen. 

It also doesn’t help that Coster-Waldau makes for an incredibly bland lead.  Looking like a budget version of Aaron Eckhart, he sleepwalks through most of the movie.  The only spark comes from Pearce whose dirty CIA character feels like he came out of an entirely different (better) thriller. 

Mostly though, Domino falls down because it’s so dull and slow moving.  The action is piss-poor too.  Although the set-up holds promise, things only get worse as the film plods along.  The second half is particularly dire, and the finale is laughably bad.  Even the most ardent De Palma devotees may have a hard time defending this one.