Trance

Trance is one of those movies that thinks it is smarter than it is. It's whole existence is to misdirect the audience, certainly hoping for us to exhale in an "ah hah" moment at the end, but by the end I had long stopped caring.

This film ends Danny Boyle's mini-streak of two straight Best Picture Oscar nominations (Slumdog Millionaire and 128 Hours). No, I don't think Trance has any kind of shot for the 2013 prize. It's a convoluted, overly edited film, and the only top ten it will end up in is Mr. Skin's, for the spectacular nude scene featuring Rosario Dawson and her shaved pudendum, which is actually a plot point.

Trance is about hypnotism, and so we are always wondering what we see is real or the inner part of our main character's mind. He's James McAvoy, who works for an auction house. He's an inside man on an art heist , but when he tries to double-cross his partners (led by Vincent Cassel) he gets bludgeoned in the head. Problem for Cassel is that McAvoy genuinely can not remember where he hid the painting. So the gang has him see Dawson, a hypnotherapist, to explore his memory.

Movies that rely on hypnotism already have more to go to convince me, because I'm not sure I believe in it. I can't be hypnotized, buy McAvoy sure can be, without much effort. Dawson is soon on to the scheme, and wants to be included, and she soon has everyone playing to her tune. This is a problem because Dawson, though a stunning woman, doesn't have the acting chops to carry this off.

The twist ending is sort of clever, but as I said, I didn't really care by that point. McAvoy is pretty much a blank. Cassel is the only interesting character, and there are moments of comedy, sometimes unintentional, that make the film interesting.

Trance is a big dud for Boyle.