Bound
バウンド
Storyline
The whole story, ending included.
A mob girlfriend and the ex-con next door plan to rob the Mafia; the sex scenes were choreographed with Susie Bright.
Corky, a lesbian just out of prison, takes a job renovating an apartment in a Chicago building. Next door live Caesar, who launders money for the Mafia, and Violet, his girlfriend of five years. Violet contrives an excuse to call Corky in, and the two women become lovers. Violet wants out of her life with Caesar, and she needs Corky's help.
Their chance comes with Shelly, a man who has been skimming from the mob. Violet hears Caesar and his associates torturing him; Johnnie Marzzone, the boss's son, kills him, and Caesar brings the recovered two million dollars home, where he washes and irons the notes. Johnnie and his father, Gino, are coming to collect it, and Caesar and Johnnie hate each other. Corky draws up a plan: while Caesar showers, Violet will go out for Gino's favourite whisky, Corky will take the money from the briefcase, and Violet will come back saying she saw Johnnie leaving. Caesar will panic and run, and the mob will blame him.
Instead Caesar decides to get the money back from Johnnie, and keeps Violet in the apartment in case she was in on it. When Gino and Johnnie arrive and Johnnie taunts him, Caesar kills them both, along with Gino's bodyguard, and then has to find the money and hide three bodies before anyone notices. He works out the truth, ties the women up and threatens them. When the mobster Mickey calls round, Violet helps Caesar stall him with a staged phone call, then slips free and tells Mickey that Caesar took the money. Corky tries to stop Caesar retrieving the cash from next door, and he beats her. Violet finds him there, tells him Mickey is on his way and that he should run while he can. He refuses, and she kills him.
Mickey believes Violet's story and asks her to be his girlfriend. She tells him she needs a clean break, and drives away from the city with Corky beside her.
Starring
Jennifer Tillyas Violet
A mobster's girlfriend who hides a steel will behind a breathy, girlish act, and wants out of her life with Caesar.
Violet’s story
Violet has lived with Caesar for five years. The day Corky starts work next door, Violet finds a pretext to call her in, and that night follows her home. When Corky overhears her with Shelly, a man skimming from the mob, Violet says it was only business. Then she hears Caesar's crew torturing Shelly, and she tells Corky she wants out and needs her help. Their plan to take the two million dollars unravels: Caesar stays, kills three men, keeps her in the apartment and ties both women up. Violet stages a phone call to get rid of Mickey, slips away and tells Mickey that Caesar took the money. She comes back with a gun and tells Caesar to run while he can; when he refuses, she kills him. She turns Mickey down and leaves the city with Corky.
Gina Gershonas Corky
A lesbian ex-convict renovating the apartment next door, who falls for Violet and plans the theft.
Corky’s story
Corky is just out after five years in prison, doing plumbing and painting in the empty flat next to Caesar and Violet. She falls for Violet at once, but when she hears her with Shelly she is jealous and hurt, and when Violet asks her to steal the mob's money she hesitates: she has been betrayed by a partner before. Then she draws up the plan herself. She takes the money from the briefcase and waits next door with it while the plan goes wrong around her. When Caesar discovers the truth, he beats her, ties her up, shuts her in a closet and threatens to torture the women until she tells him where the money is. She works herself free and goes after him, and he knocks her down; Violet kills him. Corky leaves the city with Violet.
Joe Pantolianoas Caesar
Violet's boyfriend, a money launderer for the Chicago mob, who comes apart when the money goes missing.
Caesar’s story
Caesar launders money for the Chicago mob and has kept Violet for five years. When Shelly is caught skimming, Caesar and his associates torture him; the boss's son, Johnnie, kills him, and Caesar brings the two million dollars home, washes the notes and irons them dry. Gino Marzzone and Johnnie, whom Caesar hates, are coming for it. When the money vanishes he does not run, as the women expected; he decides to take it back from Johnnie and holds Violet at gunpoint in case she was in on it. Taunted by Johnnie, he kills him, Gino and Gino's bodyguard, then talks the police away and hunts for the money. He works out the truth and ties up both women. With the money finally in his hands, he refuses Violet's warning to run, and she kills him.
Christopher Melonias Johnnie Marzzone
The mob boss's son, who hates Caesar and taunts him when he comes with his father to collect the money.
Why it matters
Bound is a crime thriller in which the two women at its centre are lovers, and the film lets them win. Its directors said it was about 'the boxes people make of their lives', and that it is not only gay people who live in closets: Violet is trapped in her life with Caesar, and the film opens on Corky bound and gagged inside a closet. To stage the sex scenes they brought in the writer and sex educator Susie Bright, in effect an early intimacy coordinator, who also appears in the film. Critics praised its realistic portrayal of a lesbian relationship in a mainstream film, and it has since gathered a cult following, particularly among LGBTQ audiences. What it asks about is desire that has had to hide, women underestimated by the men who think they own them, and what it takes to walk out of a room built to keep someone in.