Trance – review
Rosario Dawson in Trance. Photograph: Susie Allnutt
From creating some of the most iconic scenes in modern cinema with Trainspotting, to winning Oscars galore for Slumdog Millionaire (including Best Picture and Best Director), and more recently directing the London 2012 Olympics opening ceremony – he subsequently turned down a knighthood for his efforts – Danny Boyle has stacked up quite a résumé since his first big screen venture, Shallow Grave, less than 20 years ago.
Danny Boyle has never been a subtle director. He has continuously delivered memorable imagery, whether it be a baby crawling across the ceiling, characters covered in excrement, heroin-abuse, flesh-eating zombies, self-mutilation (albeit to free an arm from underneath a boulder) and even “the Queen” jumping out of a helicopter! Boyle is a bold filmmaker, who pulls no punches and rarely makes duds. Even his less critically-acclaimed films, such as A life Less Ordinary, enjoyed a cult following for its indie quirkiness. Boyle’s latest film, Trance, is not a subtle film either.
The subject matter this time is the murky world of art theft, but when a criminal gang led by Franck [Vincent Cassel] are double-crossed by the inside man, auctioneer Simon [James McAvoy], they go to great lengths to recover their target painting, Goya’s “Witches in the Air”, worth millions. Simon is knocked unconscious in the heist and when threatened by Franck and the gang, made up of Nate [Danny Sapani], Riz [Wahab Sheikh] and Dominic [Matt Cross], he admits he cannot remember where he stashed the artwork. This leads to Franck demanding Simon pick a hypnotherapist to try to unlock the lost memory.
Simon chooses Dr. Elizabeth Lamb [Rosario Dawson] and asks her to use her hypnotherapy techniques to find the memory of the location of his “keys” – the gang do not want to reveal what he is actually trying to find, but hope the process of discovery in the trance will reverse the amnesia. Elizabeth is not naive though and she soon puts two and two together and we soon see she is no shrinking violet, as she demands negotiation with Franck, with who she agrees a “finder’s fee”, for her assistance in recovering the memory for Simon and the hiding place of the Goya.
Resolving the problem proves harder than they imagined when Simon develops an attraction to Elizabeth, who he continuously implants into his induced dream states, clouding the memories. There are plenty of twists and turns in the plotline from this point onwards and Boyle and his writers, Joe Ahearne and John Hodge (Boyle’s regular collaborator), have clearly worked hard on building an intricate structure in the script to keep the viewer guessing.
Some critics have called Trance a mixture of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Inception. These are good comparisons to make as the central theme in the film is the susceptibility of the mind to manipulation, misinterpretation and memory suppression, whilst the film is shot in such a way that there are times when the lines between dreams/hypnosis and reality are blurred, which is an intentional tool of misdirection as the plot unravels.
From what starts out as quite a simple premise, Boyle and co have created an enthralling, multi-layered thriller, typically complemented by a great soundtrack, which is a mesmeric and pulsating score composed by Rick Smith (Underworld).
The performances are excellent too: Cassel (Mesrine, Black Swan) is a brooding and intense villain; McAvoy gives a convincing portrayal of a vulnerable man on the edge of sanity; whilst Dawson is in arresting (and titillating) form.
Trance is engaging to the end, where there is a lively climax, but it is let down a little by the feeling that the writers did not know quite when to end it. There are so many elaborate twists, that with each surprise it becomes less believable. It is as though they had several alternate endings and couldn’t decide which one to use, so used all of them. If it ended a couple of twists from the end, I would have gone home fully satisfied. However, others may prefer the last trick of the mind.
The vibe of Trance rolls back the years for Boyle, and expect more of the same as he is currently in the planning stage for the adaptation of Irvine Welsh’s Porno (effectively Trainspotting 2), which is a mouth-watering prospect.
Trance (15)
Directed by Danny Boyle
Starring: James McAvoy, Vincent Cassel, Rosario Dawson, Danny Sapani, Matt Cross, Wahab Sheikh.
Running time: 101 minutes
Trance is showing at the Hackney Picturehouse throughout April.