Bound by Blood | Film review - Biel & Mamet add authenticity to far-fetched thriller | Movie Talk | What's on TV

(Image credit: © The Movie Partnership)

The title Bound by Blood screams ‘generic B-movie thriller’, yet Scottish-born, LA-based writer-director Diane Bell’s sibling drama is a good deal more thoughtful than this would suggest. (Interestingly, it originally went by the title Bleeding Heart.)

The film does, admittedly, take some melodramatic turns along the way, as Jessica Biel’s peace-loving yoga teacher encounters her biological half-sister (Girls’ Zosia Mamet) for the first time, learns she is a sex worker and strives to save her from her abusive boyfriend-cum-pimp (Joe Anderson). Yet Biel and Mamet make their troubled characters emotionally credible, even when the plotting gets far-fetched.

Certificate 15. Runtime 84 mins. Director Diane Bell

Bound By Blood is available on DVD and Digital Download on Monday 11th April 2016, courtesy of Solo Media and Matchbox Films.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZI_KcYdXFA

A film critic for over 25 years, Jason admits the job can occasionally be glamorous – sitting on a film festival jury in Portugal; hanging out with Baz Luhrmann at the Chateau Marmont; chatting with Sigourney Weaver about The Archers – but he mostly spends his time in darkened rooms watching films. He’s also written theatre and opera reviews, two guide books on Rome, and competed in a race for Yachting World, whose great wheeze it was to send a seasick film critic to write about his time on the ocean waves. But Jason is happiest on dry land with a classic screwball comedy or Hitchcock thriller.