You can
always count on Danny Boyle bringing out a great film, with his 90s masterpiece
Trainspotting and multi-Oscar winning Slumdog Millionaire just showing that
this guy oozes talent, he can jump from genre to genre from trying to shock everyone
with Trainspotting to trying to confuse the hell out of the audience with the
most non-linear narrative since Inception with his newest release Trance (2013)
starring James McAvoy. Now, don’t get me wrong with Trance, I do believe that
it is up there with many of Boyle’s very high quality of films and the
cinematography is just immensely beautiful, but on the other hand, the narrative
just way too overly confusing. It’s like he is trying to compete with the trend
of films at the minute where it just disregards the conventions of narrative
structure and just want to make the audience wonder what on Earth just happened
during the 101 minutes the film goes on for.
The story of
Trance follows Simon Newton (McAvoy) who is a gambler who is in deep trouble
with the wrong type of people and has to repay his debt. To be able to do this,
he sets up a heist to steal a priceless painting with the help of Franck,
played by the undervalued Vincent Cassel, however, during the heist, Franck
knocks out Simon with a simple swoop of his shotgun. This then creates a new
chain of events, as Simon has now lost his memory, and more importantly, the
part of his memory where he hid the painting for Franck and his gang of
criminals. To be able to get the painting back, Franck suggests using hypnosis
(yep, that’s right hypnosis) to be able to get Simon’s memory back about the
painting and are connected to hypnotist Elizabeth Lamb played by Rosario
Dawson. The narrative then follows the numerous hypnotic sessions between
Elizabeth and Simon where she puts Simon under a trance (did you see what Boyle
did there) to be able to find out where Simon has left the painting. Now this
is where the narrative gets a little confusing, it is revealed that through the
sessions that Simon and Elizabeth have already met and the things that they
have done together after the sessions may have already happened, this then
leads up to one of the most confusing twists in recent cinema history which
involves a red car, a painting and erm….a shaven vagina.
All though I
have said that the narrative would be impossible to follow if you just missed
even a minute of it, overall the film is very strong and I did really enjoyed
it, however, the narrative is just so rich and strong, it is impossible to talk
about it without giving a lot of the plot points away, but I will try to not
give a lot away. The narrative of the film seems to follow McAvoy’s character Simon
and throughout most of the film, the audience believes that the film is for Simon,
but that is thrown out of the window once you are faced with the twist near the
end of the film. The film then sort of shifts towards Franck and Elizabeth as
characters and Simon is shown to be the antagonist of the film, this completely
disorientates the audience so much that we all just seem to go with what Boyle
has put up on screen. 
Within the
film, I do believe that the visuals are very strong and do match up with the
narrative, the way the visuals within the trance sessions just give it a very
mythical and hypnotic look. This then gives the audience the sense that the
visuals are trying to match up with the narrative but also trying to make it
seem realistic, this may seem impossible within a trance sequence because
essentially when you are in a trance, it is just a dream so this could create any
sort of visual. I think when of the best visual effects within the film is when
Simon is shown to go on a unstoppable killing spree and kills Franck and his
criminal gang, but it is revealed that this is a trance session as Franck
speaking with half of his head blown off.
Like I said
earlier in this review, I do believe that Danny Boyle is trying to top the
trend of non-linear and confusing films, it also seems that by trying to do
this, it shows in the narrative that maybe Boyle tried a little too hard to try
and make the film as non-linear as possible. The twists that I do understand
within the film, I believe were portrayed on screen extremely well and it did
play well within the narrative, but I also think that the twists that took me a
while to understand may have been just too confusing. However, this may just be
a reason to say that the film was just too confusing for me.
In
conclusion, I believe that Trance is a very good film, it may not be Oscar
winning quality but I did really enjoy it overall, and with the performance of
James McAvoy as practically a very disturbed individual was inspired. The plot
is highly entertaining, even if it may not be very easy to follow, it feels
like such a weight off your shoulders once you figure out what has actually
happened through the 101 minute film. So overall, I did enjoy the film but if
you aren’t into films where you may actually have to think, I wouldn’t choose
this film as a starting point as it will mess with your mind.
And, if you are interested, here is an article I did for my university's website http://www.demon-media.co.uk/film-and-tv/head-scratching-cinema/
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