Grade: B-
After Danny Boyle’s simple, emotion-baiting previous two films (“127 Hours” and “Slumdog Millionaire”), fans may be concerned that Boyle was losing the edgy and stylized touch that he had become known for.
But never fear: Boyle’s frenetic aesthetic comes back with a vengeance in his new film “Trance,” though not in an entirely positive way.
“Trance” is a highly experimental film, light on the plot and heavy on the visuals. Much of the film is disjointed and jarring, relying on far too many canted angles and a neon red and blue color scheme.
The plot itself is too thin to carry such stylish visuals, and the added element of non-linear storytelling did nothing to help this matter. Boyle seems to attempt to make the plot develop in an organic nature, but it ends up being far more convoluted than it should be.
The film unfolds with Simon (James McAvoy, “X-Men: First Class”), an art auctioneer who suffered a bout of amnesia after helping a group of criminals steal a priceless painting. Simon visits a hypnotherapist Elizabeth (Rosario Dawson, “Hotel Noir”) to try to recover the memory of where he hid the painting. As the gang of criminals, led by Franck (played by the always excellent Vincent Cassel, “Black Swan”), listen in to the hypnotherapy sessions through a wire, they all find that Elizabeth knows more than she reveals.
“Trance” juggles these two storylines without so much as an introduction to the characters or their motives, expecting the audience to figure out the jigsaw puzzle for themselves. While this is fine and dandy, it gives the first half of the film, where the entire premise is revealed through lengthy and confusing hypnotherapy sessions, a feeling of disconnect.
The viewer is given no character to empathize with, as the mystery surrounding Simon and Franck is not explained until about 30 minutes into the movie. Dawson’s blank-faced, enigmatic character does the audience no favors either.
The film forgoes the experimental non-plot of the first half of the movie in favor of a mind heist thriller à la “Inception.” This, along with a healthy helping of racy sex scenes (one of which is rather disturbing to watch), slightly elevates the film from its confusing incoherence.
Only slightly though, as another problem comes to plague the film: the characters.
Despite the talents of McAvoy, Dawson and Cassel, their characters are rather flat and poorly written once the cloud of mystery has dissipated from them.
McAvoy is perfectly cast for the role, hiding some of his more devious actions underneath his unassuming and angelic face. He is wonderfully unhinged as a character that bounces from hero to anti-hero to villain, but the movie doesn’t seem to know what it wants him to be in the end.
Dawson’s wide-eyed and cool performance is surprisingly sensuous, but her motivations are unclear and completely baseless.
Cassel is flawless and easily the most likable of the cast, playing his role with a kind of casual suaveness, with his body exuding an aura of potentially dangerous power.
The delightful acting talents of the cast and the beautiful aesthetics balance out the thin plot and outlandish twists for the most part, but even they have their limits.
“Trance” seems like Boyle’s return to his stylized direction, but it turns out to be more than a little self-indulgent. While it’s easy to applaud Boyle’s visual achievements, it’s just as easy to criticize the poor plot, the lackluster characters and the overuse of canted angles.
hbui@theeagleonline.com
