Starring: James McAvoy, Rosario Dawson, and Vincent Cassel
Directed by: Danny Boyle
Screenplay by: Joe Ahearne and John Hodge
Ladies and gentlemen, prepare to potentially have your mind blown.
Stealing art worth millions of dollars isn't something I would call easy. So when art robbers team up with a fine art auctioneer to steal a Goya painting worth over $25 million, it shouldn't be quite as difficult. But then all this crazy stuff happens.
Simon Newton (James McAvoy) is the fine art auctioneer in our story. Since he's teamed up with a gang led by a man named Franck (Vincent Cassel), all he has to do is give Franck the painting when Simon is supposed to take the painting to a safe location. During the robbery, Simon loses the painting. A dangerous blow to the head from Franck leaves him unable to remember how he lost the painting or what he did with it just before he lost it. When all forms of interrogation fail to produce the painting, Franck calls in Elizabeth Lamb (Rosario Dawson), a hypnotist, to help Simon remember what he did with the painting. As she treats him, crazy things happen and slowly it becomes harder to tell what actually happened, and it becomes less clear what is real and what is not real as his past comes back to haunt him.
The concept for the story isn't all that interesting on the surface. I like heist movies, but I like bank heists. I've never been a big fan of art heists like this, even though, often times, more money is involved in these rare pieces of art. But Danny Boyle turns this somewhat boring concept into a thrilling story. And the nice thing, it's not as intense as some of the other movies that are out at the moment. The story is paced well enough that it's not too fast, but it won't lose your attention either. It only has a run time of 1 hr. 41 minutes, but there's enough content to fill a film that could be over 2 hours long. My problem with the story isn't that everything comes crashing down at the end, but how long it takes for everything to crash and burn (literally). My problem is how long it takes for all that action to happen. The whole film feels like a dream and the end is all that crazy action that causes us to wake up in the middle of the dream, but the action is still happening long after we're ready to suddenly wake up from that dream. It's just a little more drawn out than I would like it to be, but it still makes for a pretty good ending.
The acting in this film is quite good. I'm impressed by all the performances, but especially by Rosario Dawson. She takes her role as the hypnotist to an exciting level. She is truly terrific.
So, since the film is called Trance, I would think that the music would have a trancy aspect to it, and it does to an extent. The only problem is that there are parts of the film where, because of the music, it feels more like you are in a night club, rather than in a dark movie theater watching a film. Yes the score is catchy and fun, but it doesn't do a great job of accenting the scene.
Overall, this film can get confusing at times because there are a lot of twists and turns that show up unexpectedly and don't seem all that important. But it all comes together really well, and keeps you entertained for the whole time and there aren't many places where your mind could drift. Blink, and you might miss something important. This film may be hard to find because it's only in limited release, but it's certainly worth seeing.
I give Trance a B+
Directed by: Danny Boyle
Screenplay by: Joe Ahearne and John Hodge
Ladies and gentlemen, prepare to potentially have your mind blown.
Stealing art worth millions of dollars isn't something I would call easy. So when art robbers team up with a fine art auctioneer to steal a Goya painting worth over $25 million, it shouldn't be quite as difficult. But then all this crazy stuff happens.
Simon Newton (James McAvoy) is the fine art auctioneer in our story. Since he's teamed up with a gang led by a man named Franck (Vincent Cassel), all he has to do is give Franck the painting when Simon is supposed to take the painting to a safe location. During the robbery, Simon loses the painting. A dangerous blow to the head from Franck leaves him unable to remember how he lost the painting or what he did with it just before he lost it. When all forms of interrogation fail to produce the painting, Franck calls in Elizabeth Lamb (Rosario Dawson), a hypnotist, to help Simon remember what he did with the painting. As she treats him, crazy things happen and slowly it becomes harder to tell what actually happened, and it becomes less clear what is real and what is not real as his past comes back to haunt him.
The concept for the story isn't all that interesting on the surface. I like heist movies, but I like bank heists. I've never been a big fan of art heists like this, even though, often times, more money is involved in these rare pieces of art. But Danny Boyle turns this somewhat boring concept into a thrilling story. And the nice thing, it's not as intense as some of the other movies that are out at the moment. The story is paced well enough that it's not too fast, but it won't lose your attention either. It only has a run time of 1 hr. 41 minutes, but there's enough content to fill a film that could be over 2 hours long. My problem with the story isn't that everything comes crashing down at the end, but how long it takes for everything to crash and burn (literally). My problem is how long it takes for all that action to happen. The whole film feels like a dream and the end is all that crazy action that causes us to wake up in the middle of the dream, but the action is still happening long after we're ready to suddenly wake up from that dream. It's just a little more drawn out than I would like it to be, but it still makes for a pretty good ending.
The acting in this film is quite good. I'm impressed by all the performances, but especially by Rosario Dawson. She takes her role as the hypnotist to an exciting level. She is truly terrific.
So, since the film is called Trance, I would think that the music would have a trancy aspect to it, and it does to an extent. The only problem is that there are parts of the film where, because of the music, it feels more like you are in a night club, rather than in a dark movie theater watching a film. Yes the score is catchy and fun, but it doesn't do a great job of accenting the scene.
Overall, this film can get confusing at times because there are a lot of twists and turns that show up unexpectedly and don't seem all that important. But it all comes together really well, and keeps you entertained for the whole time and there aren't many places where your mind could drift. Blink, and you might miss something important. This film may be hard to find because it's only in limited release, but it's certainly worth seeing.
I give Trance a B+
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