Trance Review

Trance

2 stars out of 4

By Brett Takeshita

Trance is a film that is easy to admire but hard to understand. The captivating performances, gorgeous visuals, and exciting direction don't quite compensate for a story that rarely makes sense and takes a few too many steps into crazy town. 

It's difficult to describe the plot of Trance without giving away spoilers, but here's the basic gist of it. Art auctioneer Simon (James McAvoy) joins a gang of robbers, led by the malicious Franck (Vincent Cassel), and agrees to participate in a risky heist. Unfortunately, the heist goes wrong, and the target painting that the gang desires disappears out of nowhere. Simon sorta blacked-out during the middle of the heist and didn't know what happened. The furious Franck then has Simon visit the mysterious hypnotherapist Elizabeth (Rosario Dawson). The goal is for the hypnotherapy sessions to delve into the deepest parts of Simon's mind, so that Simon can trigger his memories, and the gang can recover the painting. However, during these sessions, things get a little too crazy. The lines between fantasy and reality blur, and everyone soon realizes that this heist might actually be way bigger than anyone could have imagined.

The screenplay, written by Joe Ahearne and John Hodge, should be commended for its ambition. It attempts to tell a layered, off-kilter story that will keep audiences guessing until its final, nutty conclusion. While I can appreciate a twisty, complex mystery, Trance had my head spinning and my brain hurting. Perhaps I'm too stupid for this kind of movie, but I could not keep track of what was happening for the life of me. Twists can and should be a good thing, but Trance seriously throws out twists like candy on Halloween -- they fly at you every couple of minutes. I guess part of the point with Trance is that because you are getting inside an unreliable character's head, you aren't supposed to know what's real and what isn't, and therefore, you are supposed to feel sorta mind f*cked. But when the plot becomes so bonkers that you grow more frustrated than intrigued, that is a serious problem.

Despite a script that is too enigmatic and too pretentious for its own good, Danny Boyle's direction is spellbinding. Trance is a quintessential Boyle piece in that the visuals are absolutely mesmerizing and insanely gorgeous. Boyle's camera is constantly moving, and the fluid camerawork frequently grabs your attention. The bright colors pop off the screen and are hypnotic in their vibrance. The visuals perfectly complement the outstanding, pulsating electronic score that lays down four-on-the-flour beats that get your heart racing. Because of Boyle's dazzling directorial choices, I found myself excited by some of the events that occurred. But then I had to step back and realize that Boyle was trying to make this complex script more accessible for his audiences. However, even the brilliant Boyle cannot tell this story clearly. The visuals compete with the writing, but unfortunately, the shoddy writing trumps all.

Trance also has its actors trying their best with the difficult material, and the performances are uniformly great. James McAvoy shows off his huge range and delivers one of his finest performances yet. Rosario Dawson, with her wonderful soothing voice, is a convincing hypnotherapist and is magnetic in each scene. Vincent Cassel does what he does best -- being cold, intense, and frightening. It's sad that these actors are in a movie that is so problematic. They deserve better material.

Ultimately, Trance is a letdown. There was so much potential. It could've been a fantastic, trippy movie, but instead, it's an exhausting, mediocre mind-bender that rarely makes sense.