What is this exactly?

hall895

It's a mob movie, it's a lesbian movie, it's a suspense thriller, it's a heist film, it's a love story...Bound tries to be a lot of things. In the end it just ends up being a bit of a mess. The lesbian angle got most of the attention when the film came out but the fact the two lovers here both happen to be women almost seems beside the point by the end. It's almost as if halfway through the filmmakers said, "OK let's drop the lesbian stuff and turn this into a crime caper." The movie goes off in all kinds of different directions and the whole thing never really comes together and holds your interest.

Jennifer Tilly as Violet and Gina Gershon as Corky play the lovers in question here and there are a few sparks between the two but nothing is ever really sustained. The whole relationship seems rather forced and the performers, Tilly especially, never seem entirely comfortable in their roles. The best performance in the film comes from Joe Pantoliano, who plays Violet's rather oblivious mobster boyfriend Caesar, who never seems to notice that his girlfriend is more interested in Corky than she is in him. Eventually things will start to go badly for Caesar when a rather large sum of money goes missing. Watching Pantoliano's full-blown freak-out is about the best thing the film has to offer. As for why the money goes missing, suffice to say there is plenty of back-stabbing and double-crossing. There is meant to be a great deal of suspense but there really isn't. The whole caper thing just is not very interesting and quite frankly the same can be said for the movie as a whole. It starts with some promise but never really hits its stride and in the end disappoints.

score 4/10

hall895 29 November 2006

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw1533317/