BOUND (67)

Directed by: The Wachowski Brothers

Starring: Jennifer Tilly, Gina Gershon, Joe Pantoliano

The Pitch: A Mafioso's kept woman and her (female) lover plot to fleece the Mob of millions of dollars ; needless to say, things don't go according to plan.

Theo Sez: The lesbian angle can safely be ignored in this solidly entertaining thriller - just a lot of cartoonish heaving and groping, not particularly vital to the plot (which might've worked just as well with a male lover, or even with Really Good Friends) and mostly there to provide cheap (if effective) titillation. Elsewhere, fortunately, style doesn't overwhelm substance : though the camera is properly (and predictably) kinetic and the film has its share of flashy, extreme-closeup-in-slow- motion shots, the look is surprisingly subdued compared to the high-contrast Gothic of BLOOD SIMPLE and its ilk - in fact, with its silky shadows and soft, creamy skin tones, it resembles nothing so much as a 40s noir done in colour. It builds steadily to a key sequence two-thirds of the way through where you really feel that anything can happen, the rarest (and most easily overvalued) of movie-buff sensations ; unfortunately it then treads water a little, going for a couple of suspense set-pieces that work well enough but don't particularly drive the story forward, and letting small implausibilities seep into its previously watertight plotting (why does Caesar call Mickey, drawing attention to himself, if he's decided to make a run for it? - that kind of thing). Still tense and supremely confident, just not as complex as it might have been : more a great exercise - or, more accurately, a great calling-card - than a great movie.