Trance
DIRECTOR: Danny Boyle
CAST: James McAvoy, Rosario Dawson and Vincent Cassel
CLASSIFICATION: 16 LSNV
RUNNING TIME: 101 minutes
RATING: ****
You are not getting sleepy. No swinging clock or following the sound of someone’s voice will make anyone sleep through Danny Boyle’s brilliant new flick.
In this neo-noir film, Simon (McAvoy) is, on the surface, an auctioneer who is climbing up the corporate ladder.
A carefully thought out heist during an auction results in Simon being hit over the head and being launched straight into amnesia. Do not pass go. Do not collect R200.
Now Simon can’t remember where he hid the £25 million Goya painting that the thieves are after. The heist’s ringleader, Franck (Cassel) is willing to go to extremes to get Simon’s memory and the painting back, so he hires hypnotherapist Elizabeth (Dawson, pictured) and things turn up, as Juicy J would say.
Everyone in this story has a secret and each one of them has something to lose. It’s shedding light on these hidden crevices in a high-drama, fast-paced flick with some clever, witty dialogue that makes Trance so classy without being highbrow.
Trance is the type of movie that has so many eye-popping, pearl-clutching turns that you have to experience it for yourself. Know this: nothing is as it seems. And this: you will see the iPad mini – a lot – in Trance. This blatant product placement is annoying.
Boyle, who brought the world Slumdog Millionaire, marries the intensity of a heist drama with stylish, modern aesthetics. The use of touchscreen technology lives side-by-side with the feel of old-world charm.
Like, how touching the iPad opens a whole new world within the movie. That coexists with the simplicity of Elizabeth and Simon being very smart-alecky with each other on a rooftop where a neon-red sign turns everything in the scene a tinge of red that makes it feel like they are in a darkroom.
Trance also takes the idea of smoke and mirrors to a new level with the editing. Reflections subtly multiply (kind of like how they do in the Shonda Rhimes drama Scandal) and confront the viewer with the underlying tone of there being more to the story without it being a visual assault.
It’s just visually stunning. Dawson is sexy and sublime whether she has her clothes on or off (check the classification, kids!) and she works well with both Cassel and McAvoy.
Trance has a mind-stimulating plot and is very pleasant to watch. It’s the kind of movie that you may want to watch twice just because it’s that good. So don’t sleep on this.
If you liked Inception then you may enjoy this.