Exploiting the boundaries of sexual desire and the length one will go for love, power, and money, Hêlene Filliêres' Tied is an erotic thriller full of sex, murder, and sadomasochism.
Inspired by the true story that shook the French public in 2009, Tied carefully straddles the line as it works to show what can happen when a man of money and power welcomes a mistress into his bed. As their nights together lead them into a dark world of erotic desire, the two uncover a desire to submit and be dominated by one another. But when our leading man offers his mistress a large sum of money to be his forever"”and then rejects her"”he enacts a deadly bond that even he can't buy his way out of.
Presented in French with English subtitles, Tied is a film that ultimately falls victim to itself as it is never able to fully uncover its true intention, treading water just long enough to crawl its way past the finish line. The final ten minutes eventually prove to be the film's best, and though its runtime doesn't force you to wait around for too long, the exhaustion you feel during the first hour ruins any chance at an 11th hour recovery.
I was most enticed by the premise, especially upon hearing that it was based on actual events, but director Hêlene Filliêres is unable to transition the exciting headline to the big screen. The story drags painfully and the actors are given no chance to save it. The dialogue offers up rare moments of realism, and though the final moments bring about a sense of urgency, the term "thriller" is used very loosely when describing this film.
In the end, Tied is an ambitious project that likely looked much better on paper than it did on screen. The aspects of the story simply didn't translate across mediums to stir up any film worth paying for...or watching for that matter.
