Bound

In their world, you can't buy freedom,
but you can steal it.

Recently released from prison, Corky takes a job redecorating the small apartment next to money launderer Caesar, and his girlfriend Violet. As the two women draw ever closer together, they plot to steal the two million dollars he's holding for the Marzzone family, setting up Caesar to take the fall.

The first feature film by the famed Wachowski Brothers who went on to make the Matrix movies, you can see their creativeness coming out in the camerawork right from the very beginning title shot. Several scenes thoughout the movie stand out, the positioning and movement of the camera always bringing what's happening to the fore, whether tracing the phone line as Violet desperately calls Corky, or close-ups of Caesar's face as he becomes progressively more panicked. Another well used aspect in this film is sound; background noise faded out as the adrenaline starts pumping, or screams echoing through the plumbing system, it serves to build up the tension deliciously.

Bound features a small cast, each giving an excellent performance. Whilst Gina Gershon (Legalese, Prey for Rock & Roll) and Jennifer Tilly (Bullets Over Broadway, Liar Liar) may have higher billing, the real star of the film is Joe Pantoliano (The Matrix, Memento), superb as his character is put through the wringer, going from calm and cocky to panicking and scared, not a single movement wasted. Tilly does well to keep her voice from being too annoying, a problem she suffers in many of her films, and Gershon does well in a role that really shouldn't fit her nearly as well as it does, managing to look every bit as tough as the role demands, and yet still stunningly beautiful.

The actual love story between Gina Gershon and Jennifer Tilly's characters is kind of weak; the sexual tension between the two of them is clearly palpable, but the emotional depth to it is lacking. In some ways this works in the films favour, making it harder to trust in Tilly's Violet, especially as her cunning and intelligence starts to shine through in the last twenty minutes or so as she deftly manoeuvres Caesar around.

The film is neatly split up into two halves, the first where Corky and Violet meet and start to fall in love while plotting the con, and the second where the plan gets put into action, and quickly goes to hell. While somewhat thinly plotted, the twists and turns come quickly in the latter half, building up to a crescendo. As Caesar starts to fall apart, you can see Violet and Corky struggling to trust each other, unable to reassure themselves with physical contact. The opening scene is also used to strong effect, where we know that something's gone wrong with the plan, and we're left wondering just how much Corky is being manipulated and used by Violet.

Curiously enough, for a film that is oft-vaunted for its sex scene, it's actually really quite tame in its display, though undeniably hot. It's high regard seems to come more from the fact that this was a mid-nineties movie, and even in that progressive decade, lesbian sex was still rarely shown in Hollywood pictures. The film's rating comes less from the sexuality, but rather the violence depicted throughout, from the grisly torture scene to the shoot-out that occurs later on.

Bound is a great film. It could probably have served just as well without the lesbian aspect, but with it included, it also makes Bound one of the best lesbian films out there. Pretty much everything is bang on the nail, from the camerawork to the sound, the acting and the casting, and a solid story that keeps the viewer guessing. There's no good reason at all not to watch this.

9/10

-- Reviewed on October the 22^nd, 2007.

Find more details about Bound over at The Internet Movie Database.