Bound (1996, 108 minutes)

Summary:

Corky, a lesbian ex con, is hired to work in an apartment as a plumber where she meets Violet, your regular lesbian mob guy girlfriend. Soon, their attraction consummates into a hot affair. Violet wants to leave the mob behind, so they decide to steal 2 million dollars from the Mob and wonder if they can really trust each other.

The Review:

It would be really easy to dismiss this movie because it was made by two guys, the Wachowski brothers. I won’t make that mistake. This movie was originally written with a man in mind for the part of Corky. So did they just cast a woman instead of a man and leave everything else the same? NO, they hired Suzie Bright to help them make the lesbianism seem real. I myself don’t know if Suzie Bright is an expert on these things (even if she claims to be) but I do see the payoff on screen. Corky is very believable as a butch lesbian. Gina Gershon does such a great job that only at one point does she slip from the character. Jenniffer Tilly originally read for corky and ended up playing Violet. In a lot of ways she lucked out because that is a juicier role.

Violet isn’t what she seems and you aren’t sure until the last minute what she is up to. Corky is straight forward and you always know what she is up to. But she is certainly a lesbian and I enjoyed the references to the labrys and the way that sexuality is portrayed. The butch, femme stereotypes don’t live in this story. While Violet is the femme, she isn’t controlled and she isn’t stupid nor for that matter is she the bottom! It has a happy ending so you that’s enough for me, you won’t be disappointed on that score. Tilly and Gershon have a chemistry that is palpable. They look very good together!
The plot is top notch, after a slow start (Violet and Corky meet) the story picks up and you don’t know what is going to happen from one scene to the next. Even if you know the ending, like I did, you still don’t know how they get there and getting there is half the fun. If you are not into bloody, violent films, then stay away. This movie is about the mob so expect to see some blood. How are these two women going to get away with it and stick it to the mob? This question is what drives the movie and when things go wrong, watch out! The problem is just about everything goes wrong and who wins in the end depends more on who was smarter than who screwed up. Corky and Violet go through the ultimate test by attempting this heist. The trust that they have to have for one another is beyond what most people who have just met will ever experience. Talk about love at first sight.

The Wachowski brothers, responsible for the Matrix trilogy, worked hard to make this tale believable. It’s the little touches, you don’t sit there wondering how did these two women know that the other was into women. It’s all in the movie and it’s very satisfying.