“Trance” is director Danny Boyle’s (“Slumdog Millionaire”) latest film that urges viewers to question their understanding of the subconscious. In a movie that explores the human psyche a la Christopher Nolan’s “Inception,” Boyle takes us through a journey that is at once dreamy, confusing and adrenaline-rushed.
Simon (James McAvoy, “Wanted”) is an art security amnesiac kidnapped by a temperamental art thief and his crew after a botched attempt to steal a rare painting. Vincent Cassel (“Ocean’s Twelve”) fills an emotive and, at times, humorous role as the leader of the art thieves, frustrated with Simon’s lack of memory and the fact that he has hidden the painting from the robbers. After days of torturing him, the crooks decide, in a last-ditch effort to stir Simon’s memory of where he hid the painting, to take him to a hypnotherapist, played by a wonderfully restrained Rosario Dawson (“Sin City”). What follows in these sessions is a rabbit hole that leads to more questions and more confusion.
Some of these questions are never answered, and that’s the point — we can never fully understand the entire empirical truth from the perspective of our own reality. Memories are a starting point for fact checking, but they are muddled in subjective interpretation and in this case are more duplicitous than the art robbers themselves. Boyle skates this fine line between the lucid and the ethereal through hyper-stylistic shots and superbly written dialogue. Alternate angles, saturated hues and constantly shifting character development all communicate a kind of flux in sanity. It’s a perfect excuse for Boyle to have some continuity errors, of which there are a healthy amount; for instance, it is suggested that Simon knew the art thief before the heist took place, although this is never expanded. However, these slips in logic fit in with the disjointed motif that consumes the movie. Whether it’s questioning the true intentions of Dawson’s hypnotherapist or wondering who the protagonist really is, Boyle makes sure the viewer struggles to piece it all together in a vivid way.
“Trance” is as compelling a character study as any movie this year. McAvoy’s Simon is an eerily off-kilter subject under immense pressure with a smile that doesn’t seem entirely sane. Cassel’s art thief is a refreshing take on the modern antagonist; he is brutal, remorseless, and angry, but just as confused and enthralled as the audience is throughout. This leads to some pretty interesting scenes in which Cassel’s befuddlement become apparent through dumbfounded looks that provide comic relief. We see the film through his eyes, and we identify more with him more than anyone else.
“Trance” lives up to its title; it’s a film that pulls you in softly under false pretenses and then manipulates you until fact and fiction are blurred together in an orange haze. Boyle makes a stark point of throwing logic and caution to the wind throughout the entire film. Don’t try to reason with the logistics here. Just strap in and enjoy the ride. (A-)