Film Review: Under the Spell of Boyle's "Trance"

Details
Parent Category: Film and the Arts
Category: Reviews
Published on Saturday, 13 April 2013 18:52
Written by Matt Oakes

"Trance"
Directed by Danny Boyle
Starring James McAvoy, Vincent Cassel, Rosario Dawson, Danny Sapani and Tuppence Middleton
Crime/Drama/Thriller
101 Mins
R

Any time a film is in the works, I can’t help but get my hopes up. The man who’s brought such great films as Trainspotting, 127 Hours, 28 Days Later and Slumdog Millionaire has truly earned the title of auteur chameleon as he drifts in and out of genres with faultless ease. With Trance, all the earmarks of a Boyle film are here- uncomfortably close digital shots, a rich, vibrant color palette, a pulsing sense of place and life, reversals of character, etc.- but this time he’s playing with the notion of the power of suggestion. As Trance leaves little hints along the way, the twists and turns are admirable and calculated and there’s enough intrigue in the journey to set any accusations of bollocks by the wayside.

The film begins with a sly little musical ditty as Simon () breaks the third wall and tells us the ins-and-outs of the fine art auctioneering business. After a century of robberies and hold-ups, the auctioneering society has developed a systematic method to safeguard their highly prized paintings. However precious these costly paintings may be, no art is worth a human life. At least this is the case for the snobbish art auctioneers society. We shortly find out, criminals think different on the subject.

Whenever these attempted robberies take place, Simon is tasked with nabbing the painting and hustling them to a slide-away-safe. This time though, he’s cut a deal with French mafioso-type Franck () to steal Francisco Goya’s “Witches in Air”, worth a whooping 27 million British pounds. When things go awry, Simon suffers a blow to the head and forgets where he’s stashed the high-priced painting. Franck and Simon seek the help of Elizabeth (), a hypnotherapist, with hopes of cracking through Simon’s amnesia and discovering the lost canvas.

What plays out is a cat-and-mouse game of beating the psyche but as bits of Simon’s mind become unlocked the dynamics between these characters begin to shift and unfold a much deeper plot. There’s a bit of Inception taking place here as the troop attempts to crack into Simon’s mind to excavate his lost memories but instead of big set pieces, Trance relies on crafty camera work and subverted expectations to keep our attention and earn our anticipation. Every shot seems framed by another frame, a reflection of a reflection- a thinly veiled metaphor for the character and yet another example of some damn fine camera work by Boyle regular, Anthony Dod Mantle.

While there is nothing Oscar worthy in the performances, all of the players do a great job at fleshing out their characters and giving them the back-story needed to make the plot twists flourish. James McAvoy’s (X-Men: First Class) Simon is a bit of an enigma and as Boyle peels down the onion of his character, we see the crafty construction that he truly is. As always, McAvoy offers a tight little performance with an edgy air and scatterbrained coolness. At this point, he’s nailed down the apprehensive, panicky protagonist that dances with the darkness and he’s right on cue here again.

Vincent Cassel (Black Swan) lets the charisma flow and in the process transforms from a one-dimensional character into a more intriguing antihero. Suave to a fault, he channels the same seductive sporting that characterized Thomas from Black Swan. But as his secrecy melts away under the spell of Dawson’s Elizabeth, we see the man beneath the title and he’s more interesting than your cookie-cutter gangster.

Playing the fulcrum between her two leading men, Rosario Dawson (Sin City) plays Elizabeth in a similarly cryptic manner. While her decisions at first seem to be motivated by sympathy and greed, there is a primal aura of self-preservation to Elizabeth that grows throughout. I admire the fact that instead of using Elizabeth as a typical female playing third-fiddle, she is at the center of the action- she is the Queen in this game of chess and without her everything is lost. Instead of a throwaway role, Dawson plays up this character’s complexity and dumps all over the boring love triangle formula that dominate similar films.

There’s a good measure of sex and gore with some hairy carnage - one half-headed scene in particular reminded me of a Cronenberg film - and even some hairless vajayjay. Boyle knows where to beef up the scenes with a helping of these guilty pleasures and adds them in gleefully. This is hard-boiled pulp made for adults seeking an intelligent film that doesn't pretend it's anything more than it is. This isn’t some grand deconstruction of eternal themes, it’s an ample little thriller that keeps you guessing until the end and flips our expectations at every turn.

It takes a tested hand like Boyle’s to turn this relatively minor film into a genre flick buzzing along with tactful cinema purity and a life all of its own. The sly little reveals peppered throughout the film keep it light and exciting, allowing it to zip along to a satisfying conclusion. Although some of the character beats seem hurried at times, once Trance plays its final hand, you’re sure to be left satisfied and not feeling conned out of your time and money.

B+