TRANCE

TRANCE Review

By Darin Skaggs

     Danny Boyle is a great director.  He made the amazing Trainspotting, 127 Hours and Slumdog Millionaire.  Whatever he makes there is a large excitement for.  So when Trance came along you can imagine my excitement.  Sadly Boyle has made a mediocre film with many twists and turns that are more random then entertaining.

     Trance begins with a heist.  Several men are robbing a painting auction while our protagonist, Simon, narrates some history and the planning of auction robberies.  His character works for the auction and while the robbery is taking place he grabs the painting, packs it up and leaves with a couple security guards to get it to safety.  On the way, he runs into the head of the theft, Franck.  He makes him give over the painting but not without a fight.  Simon shocks Franck, and then gets knocked out.  While falling Simon hits his head and ends up in the hospital with no memory of what happen.  Meanwhile the robbers return to their place to find the painting is missing.  They then bring over Simon, which is when we find out that he was in on the whole thing, to torture him to find where the painting has gone.

     That is all in the first fifteen minutes of the film.  This film is jam-packed with plot, plot twist and secrets that makes it incredibly difficult to enjoy the picture.  I didn’t even mention they decide to hire Simon a hypnotist to help him remember where he hid the painting.  If he even has it.   The film goes so many different places it seems to be celebrating every popular genre.  There is romance, violence, obscure aspects and even a little fantasy.  Even if that is what the film is trying to do, it does not do it well.  The film has very clunky jumps from one genre to another.  The movie is not very fun.  It is incredibly confusing and there seems to be parts missing.  I do not know much about hypnotism but this film does not convince me that it is real in this universe.  If the writing was better and I cared more about these people it might be enough to brush off.  There are a few moments that are laugh out loud, but not intentionally so.

     The film is maddening.  The performances are silly and their characters are as well.  Maybe Boyle wanted to do something crazy after his last few films, which aren’t family friendly fun, but still slightly tame.  It is so confusing that there was no way to enjoy the film.