Bound (1996)
A film review by Dave Cowen
Copyright 1996 Dave Cowen
Sitting in the sole film criticism course I took years ago in college, I was suddenly puzzled as a montage of great moments of movie romance flickered on the screen in front of me. While the course didn't focus on a certain era of film, I suddenly realized that all of the powerfully romantic movie scenes that I had witnessed were primarily in the movies of the 30's and 40's. I thought about the scenes in more recent movies where characters exhibited romantic chemistry, and couldn't think of a single one where the chemistry between the two characters was so great that it overpowered me like the older films. Recently, however, I realized that the kind of powerful romance I thought was missing in cinema was making a comeback -- there have been many scenes in films I've seen since 1994 that have taken my breath away with the amount of love and passion exhibited on the screen. The common thread? All of those scenes have been between two members of the same sex.
Early in BOUND, Violet (Jennifer Tilly) spots Corky (Gina Gershon) in an elevator she's riding with her boyfriend, Caesar (Joe Pantoliano). The camera hovers at the top of the elevator, showing an aerial view of the occupants: pinned to different points in the elevator. Later, Violet brings coffee over to the apartment next door that Corky is working on, to have her turn off plumbing equipment that was making quite a lot of noise. Soon after, Corky receives a call from the landlord that Violet has accidentally lost an earring in the sink. Corky goes over, and what follows is one of the most erotic scenes that I've seen in any recent movie as Violet, flush with desire, seduces Corky using her breathy voice. There's no nudity in that particular scene -- it combines the kind of seduction present in the great noir of the 40's with 90's sexuality in a mix which managed to affect me more than any other romantic moment in any recent film about heterosexuals.
Next, Caesar walks in the room and shouts in bewilderment. "What the HELL is going on..." and then stops, realizes that Corky is a woman, grins broadly and apologizes. In BOUND there is constant play between the noir conventions of the 40's and the modifications necessary for the 90's Chicago the film is set in -- BOUND takes the noir genre and puts a refreshing new spin on it, without ever succumbing to the cartoonishness or day-glo absurdity found in PULP FICTION or one of its multiple knockoffs. Larry and Andy Wachowski have the camera move in grand, smooth gestures, as if they're trying to be parts Welles, Scorcese and Coen. They engulf their images in such dark, noir tones that if the film were rereleased in black and white and a few outdoor scenes were edited out, nobody would notice the difference. If anything, BOUND is worth the price of admission for the production design alone.
It's hard to believe that the Wachowski brothers were writers on the 1995 abomination ASSASSINS, a film which seemed to showcase tremendous lapses in its characters logic throughout the script. In BOUND, on the other hand, everything makes sense, nobody is stupid, and mistakes aren't made. Instead, you see the characters wrestling through a situation, all trying to find the cleanest way out... and typically becoming trapped and failing after taking "the best possible move". The character of Caesar seems at first to be a stereotypically stupid mobster: but as the film progresses, the script treats him with respect as he tries his hardest to logically wrest himself from the situation at hand. Violet also, at first, seems to be the standard bimbo, the kind who falls in with strong personalities and can be taken advantage of (by the villain, typically, as a plot point): but as the movie progresses, that couldn't be further from the way she is. There's an economy of bullets and gunplay in BOUND, and what could have amounted to a fairly standard standoff and shootout is turned into a drowsy and dizzying scene by some incredibly well-choreographed camera movements and realistic gunplay.
I typically dislike "thrillers" of this sort, as they're typically collections of cliche arranged slightly differently than another movie, without character development, suspense, or genuine surprises. Without the intelligence, passion and artistry the Wachowski brothers put into BOUND, the same script could easily have been modified to make the same sort of boring so-called "erotic thriller" or Gen-X crime drama that span the shelves at any video rental store. Instead, the Wachowskis take the conventions of noir and bring them new life, creating an erotic, suspenseful and ultimately very exciting film.
Dave Cowen (esch@fische.com) Eschatfische. ------------------------- http://www.fische.com
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