Director: Danny Boyle
Stars: James McAvoy, Rosario Dawson, Vincent Cassel, Danny Sapini, Matt Cross, Wahab Sheikh
After Simon (McAvoy) is wounded during an attempted robbery the criminals come after him to try and locate a stolen painting. However, the injury Simon suffered caused amnesia so they enlist the help of hypnotherapist Elizabeth (Dawson) to tease the memory out, but the deeper they get in Simon’s mind more truths are revealed than just the location of the painting.
Trance is an incredibly vibrantly visual film that is slick, sleek and smooth. There’s a lot going on and there are a few parts where I felt lost, but it’s paced well and most things are explained in a way that make sense. The strength is the shifting nature of the characters. Almost from scene to scene our opinions of them change as new information is revealed and our sympathies move around. However, this also means that for a lot of the film you’re wondering why certain characters acted the way they did, and you have to wait for it to be explained.
McAvoy, Dawson and Cassel form a strong trio that play off each other well and you’re always wondering who is manipulating whom. I liked that it deals with hypnosis as it keeps your attention focused on the lighting and other visual clues so that you can discern between the film’s reality and the trance. You really have to suspend your disbelief and allow for the fact that this deep hypnosis can happen though. Also, at some points it is hard to distinguish between what is real and what isn’t, and although the plot comes together there are a few things that don’t quite make sense, and this gives a feeling that Trance is too convoluted and is too clever for it’s own good.
You see, at a certain point it becomes clear that all this is to misdirect the viewer and as such a lot of the tricks come off as artificial. I think there are enough clues for anyone paying attention to figure out the main twist, and after that you’re fitting in everything you discover, and it’s just a matter of waiting for everything to be revealed. However, when you try to think about it, and think about the motivations of the characters some of their behavior is difficult to understand and it feels like the writers tried to go for the most mind-bending twists, but also put in enough hints so as not to lose people. The last twenty minutes or so is basically an exposition dump where everything is spelled out for the audience, and it’s a shame that this is necessary because if the plot had been a little less complicated there could have been more time given to explore the different layers of reality. For example, at one point the characters are forced to confront their most dreaded fears and yet we only see one of them go through it, I thought that this would have come into play more and was disappointed when it didn’t.
As it is, I enjoyed watching it but there are just a few things that the more I think about the more they hurt my enjoyment of the film. It’s definitely worth a watch though. The performances are good and the visuals are stunning. I like the initial premise as well, of the crooks turning to a hypnotherapist. It’s a very cool film to watch but is probably best left as a one-time thing.
