Bound

Bender

Every once in a while, there is a movie that goes to extremes and causes the appropriate extremes of emotion in the audience. Bound is such a movie. It's a movie with so much going for it that you can get drunk just by watching it. It is a ride in one of those sports cars that knocks your breath out by its acceleration and then again by its cornering, and one more time by its braking. This first-time effort by The Wachowski Brothers is so spectacularly done that it draws gasps for the performances, the production values, the writing, the camera wrangling, the sound, the music, the violence, and the sex. In other words, this is what movies are all about.

Amongst Good People

The cast of Bound is packed with pleasant surprises. I've seen Jennifer Tilly in things like Liar Liar and Bullets Over Broadway, but those were fluff parts. Tilly's voice, which is high and breathy, makes it easier to dismiss her as a bimbo, but she plays Violet smart when she wants and simple when she wants. Her perceived intelligence is inversely proportional to the proximity of her boyfriend. I certainly remember Joe Pantoliano in The Matrix, The Wachowskis' second film. In Bound he gets to unwind and let out all the stops. His panic is outstanding. Gina Gershon drew her inspiration from great actors instead of emulating the popular stereotypes of lesbians. Her cool and bravado are a blast. Most of the smaller roles are filled just as well as the primaries. Richard C. Sarafian, Christopher Meloni, and John P. Ryan are excellent examples.

In Touch

Bound had the rare fortune of having a technical consultant whose specialty is sex. Susie Bright is famous as a writer, and her writing about her experience with the movie was my introduction to it a while ago. As the story goes, the Wachowskis contacted her to offer a cameo appearance. After reading the screenplay, she upped the ante and offered to be a sex consultant, filling in what the screenplay left out. The result is one of the steamiest scenes in mainstream cinema. I used to think Wild Things was the most amazingly sexy thing I'd seen on screen, but Bound's seduction leaves it in the dust. It's a small detail that the participants in the scene are both female compared to the intense sexuality of the characters.

In Sight

Bound is also a visually captivating film. The title sequence takes a similar tack to the one in Batman, but the shifting lighting adds an extra level of cool. As if that isn't enough, that's immediately followed by a bizarre descent through a closet that captures an incredible number of things in a single take. Bound's Director of Photography was Bill Pope, who seems happy to do crazy things with a shot. The Wachowskis are bursting at the seams with artistry, and Pope helps them bring it to the screen. There are shots that come from seemingly impossible angles and move through even more impossible camera trajectories. Other shots, like those involving the white paint covering a hardwood floor, are simply the result of a vivid imagination.