By ANDY GILCHRIST
Staff Writer
The term “mind-bending” gets thrown around in film synopses much too frequently today. Fifteen years ago, The Sixth Sense blew everyone away, but today you need more than a twist ending to qualify as “mind-bending.” Now that we’re living in a post-Inception world, everyone thinks that using that term to describe their movie will lead to bigger box office grosses and while this is often times true, the psychological thrillers being released today are nowhere near the quality or intelligence of the top films in the genre.
The new film Trance attempts to change that. The British thriller literally goes into the minds of several characters to reveal their deepest secrets and hidden pasts. The film raises several questions about identity, power, and memory and is executed perfectly by strong performances from the three lead actors. A great film in the “mind-bending” genre will not only require multiple viewings to understand it, but will make the audience want to see it again, to process what they just saw. While it might prove too fast-paced and confusing for some, Trance is a film that absolutely deserves to be watched and appreciated several times.
The film opens with the theft of a priceless painting by Francisco Goya from a London art house by a man named Franck (Vincent Cassel). One of the auctioneers, Simon (James McAvoy), is hailed as a hero for trying to save the painting, but no one knows that he was an integral part of the heist. But, he removed the painting from its frame and hid it before Franck made off with it and escaped, and a head injury during the theft has made him forget where he put it.
After physical torture, including a graphic sequence of finger nails being torn off, proves Simon truly can’t remember, Franck decides that the only way to possibly find his painting is hypnosis. He contacts Dr. Elizabeth Lamb (Rosario Dawson), who agrees to help open Simon’s mind and find the painting. But everyone seems to be hiding something, trying to be the most powerful among the group. Does Simon know more than he’s letting on about? Does Franck have an ulterior motive? And how is Elizabeth really connected to all of this? The answers to these questions lead to a startling conclusion that changes everything about the film, and you leave the theater wondering what was or wasn’t real, even the ending itself.
One of the biggest pieces of the film that makes it work so well is the incredible direction from Academy Award winning filmmaker Danny Boyle (28 Days Later, Slumdog Millionaire, 127 Hours). Shots that seem trivial in the moment take on whole new meanings when everything has finally been revealed. Boyle isn’t new to using violence on screen, famously showing James Franco cutting off his own arm in graphic detail in 127 Hours. There isn’t a great deal of violence here, but when it is used, it’s very graphic and affecting to the audience. Likewise, the film contains a bit of explicit sex and nudity, but it’s never gratuitous. Both the violence and the sex are only used to move the story forward, to define the characters involved in it, not to get teenage boys to buy tickets.
The film also succeeds because of the performances of its three main cast members. McAvoy has the most intricate character, as it is his mind being played with the entire time. He plays cool, calm, and collected, just as well as he does an out-of-control madman. Cassel, meanwhile, is no stranger to playing the psychotic villain and does it convincingly again here. This time, though, his character shows a more vulnerable side that allows his talents as an actor to shine through. But it is Dawson who does the best work in the film. While she is the master of the mind, it is her psyche that is most damaged and she strips down both her mind and body as the film progresses. Dawson literally shows us everything she’s got and proves just how talented an actress she is with an absolutely fearless performance.
If there is one drawback to the film, however, it’s that it might be too fast-paced, too quick for an average audience. Right after one bombshell has been dropped that changes everything, the audience has no time to sit back and reconsider the film, as the next scene immediately begins. In a film where the viewer must be paying attention at all times to every scene and detail, the film can quickly become confusing and the viewer might not understand everything when they walk out of the theater. But as stated above, the film is so intoxicating that the viewer not only needs to see it again, they want to.
The new film Trance is a wild, twisting psychological thriller that is brilliantly directed and features powerful performances from its cast. Though it is not quite as thrilling or philosophical as the top films in the genre, such as Inception and The Matrix, Trance is absolutely a film that deserves to be seen again and again.
