Trance

Danny Boyle • 101 mins • Hero Movie James McAvoy, Rosario Dawson, Vincent Cassel

Filmed before Boyle’s Olympic duties and edited afterwards, you could forgive him for making a film that lacked focus, but although Trance is by no means Boyle’s masterpiece, it is a tight, energetic and head-scratching ride that respects the viewer and allows them to ponder over the narrative long after the film has finished. The film follows a gambling addict-cum-art dealer, who gets a bonk on the head, your standard movie amnesia, and some very angry fellows looking for a 25 million pound painting he apparently hid. The story revolves around lost memories, suppressed desires, deep fears, and the power of hypnosis.

Dawson does a pitch-perfect rendition of the professional yet alluring hypnotherapist, while McAvoy and Cassel bring equally complex and conflicted characters to life. Everyone else on screen seems to merely act as background noise, fuel for the narrative or the dreaded maguffin, as they embody the typical London thugs, lofty upper-class snobs, or the doe-eyed innocent caught in the wrong place at the wrong time.

But the film isn’t any less entertaining for having just three central characters on which the narrative clings. Indeed, if there were any more lost memories, dreams or trances weaved into the movie, it would become unbearably confusing.

What makes Trance stand out from other dream like blockbusters, is that it lacks the exposition of The Matrix, and resists dangling the cliffhanger ending in front of you like Inception. Instead, you wander through the film as clueless as the protagonists (well two of them at least), and will be unraveling it all long after. That isn’t to say the film feels fake or otherworldly. In fact, bar one odd action scene spliced with an ill-fitting soundtrack, the film’s universe is consistent, convincing and most importantly, enthralling.