Trance

It's probably considered treason by now to criticize Danny Boyle. The man is a national hero today after he brought home the Best Picture Oscar after nearly 10 years (I wouldn't count Shakespeare in Love before I crap in my pants) went on to direct the 2012 Olympic Games ceremonies, made the Queen of England paraglide (well, apparently) in front of the whole world before politely declining a knighthood from her Majesty for the love of being a common englishman who simply happens to love his country so much. And for a film director of such caliber, Mr. Boyle, has carved a niche of reputation for himself, right where legends like Quentin Tarantino, Christopher Nolan, David Lynch, Steven Soderbergh and Steven Spielberg are at the top of their games, in their own unique styles. He broke ground with a murder mystery, a trippy rabbit-hole through the muck of Edinburg's drug scene, went ahead to experiment with a wayward retrospection that leads to a hidden Beach, redefined the Zombie genre with an epidemic-survival guide, a fable of innocence, a space-mission adventure, a Bollywood love-story and a critically acclaimed true story about survival in the Utah plains. With Trance, he now takes on a Bank Heist. Through the viewpoint of a hypnotherapist. Who's hypnotized Simon, an art-house auctioneer. Who's in cahoots in an art-house heist. Who has um.. well lost his fucking mind. And to fully understand Trance, you really MUST lose your mind. Here's why.

To continue, the art-house heist goes wrong. The thieves plan the robbery of a multi-million-pound worth paining by Spanish romantic painter Francisco Goya (Witches in the Air), but manage to get away nothing but a bronze frame, thanks to Simon, who's apparently devised a plan of his own, to deceive the gang single-handedly, but not before getting shotgun-walloped on the head by their leader Franck (Vincent Cassel). Simon drifts into a coma, losing his mind and with it, his memory of what he did with the still-missing painting. No amount of torture seems to revive his damned amnesia. Desperate for solution, Franck draws help from Elizabeth Lamb, a seemingly talented hypnotherapist, who immediately senses something is amiss with her patient, and decides to help him out. Things seem so straightforward and simple at first, even during Simon's initial hypnosis. All that had to be done was to reach inside his mind and retrieve the memory. Simple, right?

Actually, no. If you're willing to do some serious retrospection, a LOT of questions would instantly arise. Why would Elizabeth lamb, (seemingly adept at her profession) agree to help a bunch of goons retrieve their loot? Is retrieving a memory from within amnesia really that easy? Did Simon really steal the painting? Or did someone else do it? Slowly you realize there's a lot going on behind the story that you have no clue about. Franck isn't just another petty art thief. Lamb actually knew who Simon was, even before he came to her for professional help. They even seem to share a history. The more that is revealed, the more contrived the plot becomes. Stretched beyond imagination, through loops and knots, only a lengthy explanation seems capable of clearing the fog.

As expected, Trance has all the visual flair you want from a Danny Boyle film, with all the cross cutting between flashbacks and the present time and Boyle does gets to play around with the dreamscape. Trance also serves as a great example of how a music score can amplify the action on the screen, being a fast and pumping when the action picks up to being calm and tranquil for the hypnotist sequences. Boyle does get to audience absorbed into his dream worlds with his use lens flare, camera movement and music.

Trance is similar to other thrillers like Memento and The Machinist, twisting and turning constantly. Boyle starts the film as a heist flick and then slowly turns the genre gears and turns the film into a psychological thriller. Like Christopher Nolan, Boyle and his writers set out to explore themes of memories, relationships, manipulation and trust and it was done to an expect level. Throughout the film, it changes courses constantly, leaving to the audience guessing: but Boyle and the writers do leave some clues about the eventual ending and I am sure there's more to the film, during a second viewing.

The characters themselves are also enigmas, as their motivations change and we get to see more pieces of the puzzle. Simon starts off as a victim but as the film progresses, we see his dark and twisted side and McAvoy effectively brings this out of his character. He was much better fitted for this role, than his recent action anti-hero role in Welcome to the Punch. On a whole, the characters are generally unsympathetic and the film constantly shifts both its focus and who the audience should root for. But added to the film's theme of who we are meant to trust as relationships, the motives in the film that shift along coincide with its themes and makes some sense overall.

Whilst Trance is a fun ride, people might begin to see multiple plot holes and raise questions about how characters know certain actions and reactions were going to happen. But it can be argued that The Dark Knight Rises had plot problems, if you held it to any form of analysis and people still enjoyed that film. The aim of Boyle and the writers was to focus on the themes and how the puzzle fit together once you get more information, even if the foundation itself is a little shaky.

Trance is a highly entertaining and engaging crime and psychological thriller. It is a fun ride as it brinks through its 101 minute running time. Whilst there are some logic and logistical problems in the plot when everything is revealed, it is still a well made film that explores the themes of memory, trust and the framework of the mind. Fans of Boyle's previous work will certainly be pleased. The only reason you'd probably dislike the movie is that you were not able to decipher it.