Danny Boyle may be one of the most versatile directors working in film today. He’s done a zombie horror film, dark comedy, an Oscar-bait Bollywood homage, a science fiction thriller, a children’s movie, a theatre adaptation of Frankenstein and even the Olympic opening ceremony. Now he can finally check “heist film” off his to-do list, even though his latest film, “Trance,” ends up being much more than that.
Simon (James McAvoy) is an art enthusiast with a gambling problem who decides to pay off his considerable debt by stealing a rare painting for violent gangster Franck (Vincent Cassel). During the heist, Simon plans to double cross everyone and steal the painting for himself but suffers a blow to the head that causes him to forget where he stashed it.
Unable to kill Simon until the painting is found, and unable to torture the answer out of his amnesia-ridden brain, Franck hires the beautiful hypnotherapist Elizabeth (Rosario Dawson) to try to coax the answer out of his head.
Heist films are popular for a reason. Watching cool people in suits meticulously planning and executing a brilliant plan is always fun to watch, albeit not all that original. Boyle uses his kinetic visual style to great effect during the art heist, and you can tell he had a lot of fun putting his spin on it.
However, it’s when the hypnosis element kicks in that the film becomes something entirely different. Elizabeth is coincidentally the most effective and persuasive hypnotist on earth, and the film becomes a game of asking what’s real, what’s a memory and who’s hypnotized.
The hypnosis element really requires a suspension of disbelief. Anybody who has been hypnotized at a birthday party knows that you have to be very susceptible to hypnosis for it to be effective. Dawson does a great job of selling the fact that she could play everyone at once, but at times it’s tough to believe she can snap people in and out of blackout hypnosis almost instantly.
Cassel, McAvoy and Dawson do a fantastic job of selling somewhat weakly written dialogue and making it believable. Lesser-caliber actors and a less talented director could have lowered this to almost made-for-TV quality. In fact, the film is based on a TV movie of the same name, which nobody remembers.
As the film proceeds, the heist element fades away, and Boyle uses the façade of hypnotic dream states to implement his kaleidoscopic use of color and grotesquely creative violence. This is where the film really shines. The logic problems start to fade away, and you begin to get lost in your own kind of trance.
However, in the end, the film pushes its luck and goes for one too many twists, which prolongs the conclusion. You’ll leave the theater smiling, but for every beautiful trippy visual and memorable character, there’s a plothole you wish someone could make you forget.