‘Trance’ is the latest film by director Danny “Trainspotting! Slumdog Millionaire! 28 Days Later! Olympics!” Boyle, focussing on a heist of a famous piece of art, stolen by Franck (Vincent “Black Swan” Cassel) and his three other criminal accomplices, but stopped from being stolen by Simon (James “Wanted” McAvoy). Knocked out and forgetting where he hid the painting, Franck sends him to a hypnotist – Elizabeth (Rosario “Men In Black 2” Dawson) – to try and work out where he hid it.
‘Trance’ rolls out in a similar way to McAvoy’s recent film ‘Welcome To The Punch’, in that you’re never entirely sure who is who, and who is on whose side, making it for an exciting ride as you work out the truth, told through a series of flashbacks and dreams, with it being unclear what is real, what is the result of the hypnosis and what has been implanted in the mind of Simon.
The answer to this is mostly within plain site in the first twenty minutes but even if you work this out there is still much to be had and working out how and why even if you have the who. The clues to the conclusion are scattered throughout in scenes and there is a satisfaction of working it out and even though you’ll spend much of the film scratching your head, though not the level of ‘Inception’, it’s all nicely explained so you can leave the cinema without lots of questions and there is something delicious in seeing a character’s revenge portrayed so visually on screen and it never feels illogical.
McAvoy, Cassel and Dawson are all strong leads in the film and carry the film confidently even if Dawson is, at times, exploited for her sexuality. There are several strong set pieces including the opening heist and the action-orientated conclusion and some well judged strands of black comedy and one example of rather creepy CGI. There are some nice touches for the cinematography to represent the state of mind of the characters with some well framed and set-up shots and a well planned concept of using tablet computers to expand the story. The music didn’t particularly stand out to me, but did its job.
Overall ‘Trance’ was an exciting concept well played out with enough twists and turns to keep you guessing but a well-composed solution to tie up the loose ends. Pretty explicit in my opinion for a 15, ‘Trance’ is well worth a watch for its constant shifting of plot.
(7/10)
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