Bound
Special preview presented by 2XX and SistaAct
June 19, 8.15pm
Electric Shadows Cinema
Tickets $15/12 for 2XX subscribers and concession
Proceeds to 2XX
Review by Tristan Ray
The debut film of the Wachowski brothers, Andy and Larry, Bound, by all rights ought to be an art house smash. Why? Because it is simply the best film noir of the past decade.
In its audacity and visual style, Bound is reminiscent of the Coen brothers' debut exercise in noir, Blood Simple. What Bound has that Blood Simple — and most other Coen brothers' exercises — doesn't is that mysterious quality that the sentimental call "heart" and sophisticates identify as a kind of wry, tough-minded compassion.
For most of its length, compassion is not the quality Bound brings to mind. Consider the circumstances: a leather-clad lesbian, just released from prison, moves next door to a mafia soldier and his "moll" — a seemingly dim-witted and very sexy sort of woman that any student of noir will instantly tell us is scheming, plotting, and duplicitous. Indeed — played by Jennifer Tilly — she is that.
So, from the start we don't trust her. The leather-dyke-next-door, played with allure and subtlety by Gina Gershon is our noir hero; a Robert Mitchum in gender twist. This boxing-buffed, out-on-parole thief is just a bit on the shady side, but not without a considerable dose of character as we learn from watching her interact in the very rough gay bar she frequents. As it turns out, our ex-con is vulnerable.
Joe Pantoliano plays Caesar, the volatile hood. This character overflows with an unpredictable craziness, a kind of deadly zaftig, that is played to the hilt by Pantoliano in one of those small jewels of a performance that would, had this picture broken out, brought him jump-start career acclaim.
Much of Bound is rough, scary and unpredictable. It has a quality rarely found in current Hollywood products: the element of surprise. Once its wheels are set in motion, you're never quite certain where it is going and some of the character-driven (rather than plot-driven) forays into unexpected territory can have an audience gasping in both delight and a kind of terror — oh, those rose pruners!
Part of our dread is heightened by the opening shots which show Gershon bound and beaten. We know from the outset that things will go wrong, we just don't know how wrong. In this suspense, the directors exceed our expectations.
So what's the gimmick? Caesar launders money for the mob and, in the Wachowskis' script, that can be taken literally. His gal Violet has "eyes" for Corky (Gershon). Who wouldn't, given her pouty, sultry sexiness. Their seduction scene, one of the most erotic between two women since Aldrich, is laced with such humour it disarms the audience and renders us willing co-conspirators. As it happens, Caesar is holding $2 million of the mob's money on the premises, and Violet proposes that she and Corky take the money and run.
To say one word more would deprive you of the joy of discovery — the Wachowskis' palette of dark colours suggesting the black and white sensibility of noir; Eve Cauley's production design; Bill Pope's razor sharp, though muted, colour cinematography. And then, there's that ending.