TRANCE

2013; directed by Danny Boyle; adapted by Joe Ahearne and John Hodge; 97 mins

When Trance came out, it seemed to garner mediocre reviews, which was a surprise in light of the ongoing Danny Boyle love tsunami that had started with Slumdog Millionaire and continued on through 127 Hours and that incredible Olympic opening ceremony. I love this movie! Not only that but this is my favourite of Boyle’s movies from the last decade*, alongside T2 Trainspotting. It’s just enormous fun! It’s proper, naughty, violent, sexy, twisty, turn-y entertainment for grown-ups and what’s wrong with that?

Simon has just helped Franck steal Goya’s Witches in the Air, worth over £25mil, from his own employers. They all got away clean but Simon has hidden the painting and owing to a clout round the head from Franck’s shotgun, he can’t remember where it is. Since torture can’t get an answer out of him, Franck and gang – Nate, Dominic and Riz – pack him off to a hypnotherapist of his choosing. He has chosen Elizabeth, who quickly ascertains that Simon isn’t telling her everything and soon is in on the steal…

There are some surface overlaps with Inception and that also includes the experience of watching it. You can choose to get immersed in the narrative and try to keep up with the hustle and bustle of the plot, or you can just let it all wash over you. I guess I do a bit of both. In all honesty, even after three goes round, I still haven’t managed to keep up with it entirely. It has it’s dream levels and a central heist and repressed memories but it also has a taut style and sexy stars being seductive all over the place. You just don’t know where to look… Everywhere!

Trance is certainly in the top ten of best shot movies from the 2010s. Anthony Dod Mantle‘s cinematography coupled with Mark Tildesley‘s production design give the whole thing a top-end Giallo feel, the apex of lurid. Thinking about it more, that Giallo connection feels true also in the sense that this movie has it’s operatic moments, like so many Italian filmmakers have been fond of in the past. The music, the tempo and the emotions really surge skywards during certain key passages.

McAvoy, Dawson and Cassel are extremely game and bring great compassion to a trio of not necessarily likeable characters. Their respective journeys take them all through the Rubik’s cube of trust. Because the three of them are terrific actors aswell as being very attractive movie stars, the story, aided by screenwriter John Hodge‘s typically caustic dialogue, they help you to enjoy the film despite the maze of information and misinformation.

All this is brilliantly judged and orchestrated by Danny Boyle, clearly using the film to have fun around all the Olympics business. It’s true he hops from genre to genre but Trance in unmistakably his work. He uses his style to compliment the story or to elevate it, never to overpower it (see, Steve Jobs). This story is big, he directs thusly and it is great!

*Bearing in mind I have yet to see Yesterday but the presence of Ed Sheeran in that movie means I won’t like it as much as I do this.