Gangster's moll Violet (Tilly) gets a new lover and together they plot to steal
enough money to start a new life together. Sounds fairly predictable but the gimmick is that
Violet's lover Corky is a woman(Showgirls survivor Gershon.) The beginning of the
film, where the lovers meet and make love is pretty explicit for a mainstream film, but soon
we are into film noir twisty thriller territory. Flash backs, flash forwards and slo-mo violence
are used as Violet and Corky mix with the mob and Violet's violent boyfriend Cesare.
The plot is quite good, although a few tried and tested suspense tricks are seen; the hasty
tidying up after a trio of bloody killings, a policeman inches from 3 dead bodies
and not seeing a thing etc. However, it works very well as a thriller, keeping the audience on
alert as we wonder if the women will pull it off.
Gershon is very butch and sweaty, but sexy. Tilly is a perfect femme fatale although her voice
is getting close to Melanie-Griffith-annoyingly squeaky. She has more to do in the scam, but never
resorts to helpless whining. Both women are strong and tough. Pantoliano is very good as the
mob man who reacts unexpectedly to the women's deception, violent but not mindless and he has a great death scene.
I am still uncertain about the whole concept of the lesbian lovers. You can't help but feel that the film
was written for a heterosexual couple and that the lesbian angle is for titillation and attention-grabbing
purposes more than anything else. Gershon's character does very little in the second half of the movie.
She is little more than a sexy stereotype albeit a sympathetic one. The Wachowski brothers previous work was the script to
the distinctly average Assassins and they brought in a lesbian 'expert' to add a little authenticity to the
script. I don't know how realistic it is, although it certainly looks it. There is no way something
similar with two men would ever get made, certainly not in the detail seen here, but two women together is a
common male fantasy so OK!
Maybe we should just be grateful to see two attractive heroines who are also gay- female driven films are still the exception-, and no punches pulled
in the love scenes. Perhaps we should wonder why two white, middle class guys from Chicago chose this particular pairing though.
On a positive note, this is a tightly plotted thriller that is good to look at for its production design and pretty stars, although
Pantoliano is a right ugly bloke! Sexy girls, no sexy guys! 7/10