‘Bound’ Wraps Brutality With Dark Humor

“Bound” starts with a deceptive image of a young woman gagged and tied up--an image that first-time directors Larry and Andy Wachowski return to frequently as attraction grows between two women in a Chicago apartment house.

Just as you think you’re in for some S&M; lesbian sex that might be more than a little degrading or exploitative, the Wachowskis instead go for one surprise after another.

The brothers Wachowski, who wrote the script for the recent “Assassins,” inevitably bring to mind Joel and Ethan Coen, especially the brothers Coens’ first picture, “Blood Simple.” Their inventiveness in thinking up one outrageous yet plausible plot development after another also recalls John Dahl’s “Red Rock West.”

Above all, it’s a good thing that the Wachowskis are as darkly hilarious as they are because they go in for the Quentin Tarantino-style, in-your-face brutality. “Bound” is not for the faint of heart.

In short, “Bound” is admittedly derivative, but it’s such an amusing low-down entertainment it really doesn’t matter. Gina Gershon’s Corky is a leather-jacketed, tattooed lesbian--very sexy in her macho way--who’s hired to renovate a run-down apartment, tackling the plumbing as well as the painting.

But she scarcely gets started covering up the ugliest wallpaper in the Windy City when Jennifer Tilly’s seductive Violet, who lives in the apartment next door, is asking Corky if she wants to see her tattoo. Glamorous, expensively gowned, Violet could scarcely come on stronger to Corky.

Violet is a delicious film noir femme fatale, ensconced in post-modern style luxury but feeling imprisoned after having been kept in the style she has become accustomed to for five years by Ceasar (Joe Pantoliano), a crude but canny Mafia soldier who promptly turns up with $2 million in a suitcase. Now the fun begins in earnest.

The Wachowskis are wonderful at getting these three up to their ears in trouble, and Pantoliano is amazingly, heroically concentrated in his portrayal of a man so swiftly and drastically caught up in catastrophe he must instantly focus all his attention just on staying alive.

Violet is so laughably audacious in the eye of the storm that Tilly is able to make the same kind of vivid impression in “Bound” as she did in “Bullets Over Broadway,” which brought her an Oscar nomination for a very different kind of underworld mistress, a silly, no-talent would-be-actress. (It’s tempting to read Tilly’s breathy Violet and Pantoliano’s desperate, manic Ceasar as takeoffs on the screen personalities of Melanie Griffith and Joe Pesci.)

Tilly’s fireworks allow Gershon to make a striking impression by underplaying Corky, a woman who knows Tilly spells big trouble but can’t resist her.

With virtually only three key sets shot outside one or the other of the two apartments, “Bound” is a textbook model of economy--both artistically and fiscally. Yes, you can be cinematic with just two primary sets--the apartments were constructed on a sound stage in Vernon, of all places.

Thanks to meticulous, knowing production designer Eve Cauley, they match up perfectly with the hallways and exteriors of the Talmadge on Wilshire Boulevard, the kind of elegant old structure that could have been built in the ‘20s in any sizable city in America.

Bill Pope’s beautifully lit noir-style camera work and Don Davis’ witty score complete this zesty, gratifying little picture.

* MPAA rating: R, for strong sexuality, violence and language and violence. Times guidelines: The film contains much brutality, some steamy sex and strong language.

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‘Bound’

Jennifer Tilly: Violet

Gina Gershon: Corky

Joe Pantoliano: Ceasar

John P. Ryan: Mickey Malnato

A Gramercy Pictures release of a Dino De Laurentiis Co. presentation in association with Spelling Films. Writers-directors the Wachowski Brothers. Producers Andrew Lazar, Stuart Boros. Executive producers Larry Wachowski and Andy Wachowski. Cinematographer Bill Pope. Editor Zach Staenberg. Costumes Lizzy Gardiner. Music Don Davis. Production designer Eve Cauley. Art directors Robert Goldstein, Andrea Dopaso. Set decorator Kristen Toscano Messina. Running time: 1 hour, 48 minutes.

* In general release throughout Southern California.