Bound is a 2015 produced erotic thriller directed by Jared Cohn, with its production courtesy of ‘The Asylum.” This film captivates its audiences by showcasing a powerful woman’s journey intertwined with self exploration and treachery. Unlike the neo-noir film with a similar name, this version focuses on the deeper aspects of sexual relationships within a business boundary. The cast includes Charisma Carpenter, Daniel Baldwin, and Bryce Draper.

Plot synopsis

Michelle Mulan, the protagonist, is a powerful woman in her forties going through a divorce while trying her best to raise a teenage daughter. Mulan’s expectancy of life is dull and predictable further enhanced by her career as a successful real-estate executive. She soon meets Ryan who happens to be a curious mix of younger handsome man which enhances her unraveling world.

At the start of the film, Ryan uses BDSM as a tool to enhance his and Michelle’s sexual flirtation. It becomes apparent that any level of relationship felt Michelle longed for. Meeting Ryan gives her the ability to feel uncontrollable power and confidence. Towards the middle of the film, Michelle becomes increasingly troubled as Ryan’s sadistic plans become further complicated and blurs with dangerously pleasurable sex.

Character analysis

• Michelle Mulan (Charisma Carpenter): Strong-willed professional woman dealing with problems in her personal life. For her, the process of submission and domination becomes one of empowerment and enhanced identity.
• Ryan Black (Bryce Draper): A younger man, charismatic, and poised to be dangerous, who seduces Michelle into a controlling and overly complicated relationship that she thinks is to her sexual liberation.
• Walter Mulan (Daniel Baldwin): Michalle’s husband who separated from her. He was emotionally unavailable and disloyal which is the stagnant part of her life that she wishes to escape from unlike her wife, Michelle.
• Dara (Morgan Obenreder): Michalle’s daughter who is very troubled. She is a teenage lass and her actions depict the family’s dysfunction and adds more difficulty to Michalle’s decisions.

Themes and Style

• Power and Submission: The film analyzes the psychological mechanisms of domination as comprehended in personal relationships, especially using the scope of BDSM.
• Midlife Reinvention: The telling aspect of Michalle’s case is the tilting of identity after the predictable scheme of society and family life for day to day living for many years.
• Manipulation and Control: Amost secondary to the sexual side of the story is that of emotional abuse and abuse of power by enabling what seems to be empowering.
• Erotic Thriller Aesthetic: The movie seeks for sexuality dioparamatic with psychological obscurity put across through gloomy lighting, strained intimacy in the interactions, and suspenseful actions.
• Dara (Morgan Obenreder): Bound (2015) gives us shocking story of a woman who battles with strong temptations and evil schemes. Together with erotic issues, the film tries to analyze the issues of accepting, emotional dominance, and the narrow boundary of replicating empowerment and exploitation.

The depiction of BDSM and power play may, however, be as much sensationalist as it is sophisticated. This may attract an audience interested in more adult psychological dramas with a tantalizing twist.