Jennifer Tilly, Gina Gershon
Femmes don't get much more fatale than Tilly, playing a well-kept Mob mistress out to seduce a lesbian repairwoman (Gershon) who's fixing up the condo next door. Tilly has dark, gimlet eyes, milky skin that glows against her short, black dresses, a bow mouth lacquered in a similar shade, and a small, raspy voice that sounds like a duckling whispering sweet nothings. She seduces Gershon, all right, along with the audience.
Once the women become lovers, Tilly suggests they steal $2 million in freshly laundered money from her boyfriend the mobster (Joe Pantoliano). What follows is a sleek and ultimately too slick film-noir tale of suspicion and doublecrosses. Directors-writers-brothers Larry and Andy Wachowski have come up with some nasty, artful touches—a bathroom torture scene is filmed with exactly the right degree of gore and restraint—but they didn't bother to fix major implausibilities that dumb down the plot. The movie looks great but unreal. What modern-day gangster would have his home done in black-and-gray art deco? Bound is a smart exercise in style but doesn't quite register as a movie. (R)
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