Rating of
3/4
"Trance" by Yojimbo
Yojimbo - wrote on 04/04/13
An auctioneer suffers head trauma during an art robbery that causes him to lose his memory, much to the chagrin of the perpetrators who employ a hypnotherapist to learn the whereabouts of the missing painting. Genre spanner Danny Boyle turns his hand to the heist movie in this mind bending psycho thriller that bears all the hallmarks of his otherwise eclectic projects. The film opens strongly with an exciting smash and grab in the vein of Guy Ritchie or Stephen Soderbergh as Vincent Cassell and his men lay siege to the auction house. The dramatic climax is also a nerve shredding explosion of violence and revelation but somewhere between, the surreal mish-mash of reality and psychology somehow fails to glue to two together; McAvoy's character is a little too schizophrenic to relate to and some of the twists and turns are not entirely convincing, feeling more like convenient plot devices than a believable story. Boyle's trademark brisk pacing certainly maintains the interest however and the strong cast make for a highly watchable and surreal heist movie. The biggest problem with Trance is that it shares a little too much common ground with Inception, which is a far more subtle, smart and sophisticated affair.
