Trance has proved itself to be the first (and hopefully last) Danny Boyle directed film that has disappointed me. Though, having a promising concept, giving an enjoyable introduction to what seems to be a Thriller worth the time. Our main character Simon (played by James McAvoy) is an art auctioneer who suffers from a hard case of gambling addiction. Simon is so financially affected by his addiction that he decides to steal a '27 million' painting while partnering up with a group of criminals lead by Franck (played by Vincent Cassel) to help him achieve his goal. When Simon embarrassingly fails to deliver the painting to Franck he is hit in the head. Simon ends up having amnesia and forgets the true location of the painting and after being tortured for answers Franck is convinced that Simon indeed has forgotten where he hid it. They decide to use a hypnotherapist as a solution to their dilemma. And THAT is where the film begins to take some wrong turns.The main scenario of the film starts to become less and less believable with each move. The hypnotherapist character named Elizabeth (played by Rosario Dawson) and her motivations become more confusing, weirdly complex and shallow. The main characters create messes out of messes as the film further progresses towards atmospheric confusion.The film builds up a triangle drama as the main theme with strange dream scenes that are either (depending if its either Simon or Franck) the result of another hypnosis session or just a dream. Towards the end the film tries to bring in some clarity and an explanation to the table (in an already mess of a story) as we see Simon become (in a way) the villain and the ACTUAL villain become a victim but at this point it is just too late.The film proves itself to be based on a decent concept, but also an unfinished idea for whatever makes a reasonable and good story. The characters became more shadow like with each passing moment of the plot, although being given a good performance (from some) the decisions and the overall situation is simply too far fetched. The whole ending is ridiculous. Simon embraces his (now revealed) dark past and the fact that he apparently is a violent and abusive monster. He attempts to burn Franck alive (at a point where Franck is now weak whereas in the beginning he was criminal and torturer) and during this attempt Elizabeth successfully kills Simon by rushing a truck at him as he opens his arms. AND after all of this Franck (not really but also kinda) wakes up in his bed making the whole thing seem like a dream. But we're given a crystal clear answer during the final scene that it wasn't a dream at all. Just completely screwed.Whatever made me give this film respect was absolutely removed after being forced to go through the ending. Now I'm gonna need hypnosis to forget all about this trashy drama thriller.

Four semi-naked figures are writhing in thin air. Three of them wear thin, pointed hats, and are holding the fourth against his will. His face is twisted into an agonised grimace as his captors suck and gnaw at his flesh. Beneath this gruesome foursome, a fifth man cowers under a blanket, his fists extended in a vain attempt to ward off the torment hovering above – or perhaps inside – his head. No, this isn't a scene from Trance, the cheerfully discombobulated new thriller from Danny Boyle: it is in fact the scene depicted in Witches in the Air, a painting by the Spanish artist Francisco Goya, which is the target of the art heist around which the film revolves. At around the halfway point, however, you may well be able to sympathise with the chap who has the sheet over his head. I think it's worth mentioning that Boyle was hanging on to this script since he made "Shallow Grave" and at filming he was also pulling off the Olympics Opening Ceremony. Not to detract from the reviewer's critical observances and Boyle certainly applies his style to his movies. It was a fun movie that you can enjoy once, like Christopher Nolan's Memento. Every so many years someone pulls off a heavy plot twist film really well. I think this one counts.It has the sort of manic energy that makes Boyle's movies so interesting; unfortunately, it also has many of the flaws that make them so frustrating. It's no coincidence that most iconic moments in Boyle's work — the "Choose life…" monologue from "Trainspotting" (1996), the zombie attacks from "28 Days Later" — involve the characters running. Boyle is a sprinter: His movies start out fast and energetic, but can't sustain the pace for too long. His career is full of films that are great for the first hour and then devolve into generic blandness ("Sunshine" (2007) and "The Beach" are two of the most obvious examples).While "Trance" never falls apart, its closing stretch involves several shifts in emotional perspective that the movie doesn't really pull off. To make matters worse, Boyle ends the whole thing on a sentimental note which doesn't jibe with the nihilist tone of the final act (this is also a common Boyle problem). The awkward shoehorning of Big, Serious Themes into the pulp premise doesn't help, either. However, if you can look past the sputtering conclusion — or the pseudo-intellectual banter about memory, modern art, and other assorted nonsense — what you'll find is a brisk, breezy, style-heavy crime flick that happens to be one of the most purely entertaining movies Boyle has made in a long time.

Trance is another thriller from known director Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionaire). It's plot may be thin in concept, which is an art heist movie for adrenaline junkies. Simon (James McAvoy) works at a well-known art auction house. He has been well-trained as to what to do should anyone try to rob the building of their multi-million dollar collection of paintings. Move quickly and save the most valuable piece of art that you can get your hands on. Put it in a special case, put that case down a chute, and at least guarantee that the prized possession of the auction house will be safe.The film does have a certain storyline which is confusing once the film gets into its place. Trance is an aggressive movie, a work propelled by a driving score by Rick Smith of Underworld and kinetically shot by the great Anthony Dod Mantle (a regular Boyle collaborator). It's a film that has such Boyle-typical forward momentum that the viewer simply gives into it and goes along for the ride. Although it is well written and entertaining, the end twists could have been much better. It felt as if it was not fully polished.

Danny Boyle is one of my favorite and one of the great modern filmmakers of the last twenty years. His unique style and ability to make a film in a different genre each time he gets in the director's seat has not only proved successful and earned him critical praise and awards, but it shows that he has limitless talent to entertain a wide variety of audiences across the globe. With his latest film, 'Trance', Boyle shows he still has what it takes to make a modern noir movie with so many twists and turns, that eventually you will give up trying to figure what's going on in the story, and fall into Boyle's "trance" of betrayal, thievery, and sex in this art heist thriller.The main focus here is on an auction house employee Simon (Jame McAvoy), who is cahoots with three criminals to steal a painting from the 1700s by Goya, which in the film was auctioned off for over $41 million. In an elaborate scheme to pull off this heist, Simon's partner in crime Francis (Vincent Cassel) hit him with a shotgun in the head, leaving Simon in the hospital for a few days with a case of amnesia. What we find out is, Simon hid the painting before making the handoff and now cannot remember where he stashed it.After a bit of brutal torture on Simon, Francis and his two thugs believe he has no idea where he hid the painting and thus tell him to seek hypnosis therapy to see if he can trigger his memory loss. He seems to choose random name out of the phone book of American therapist Dr. Elizabeth Lamb (Rosario Dawson), who is smarter than she thinks and figures out quickly that Simon is in trouble and that his cohorts are listening in to their sessions secretly. Dr. Lamb convinces the group to join for hypnosis sessions and after she realizes what's at stake, she insists on an equal cut of the prize.From here, things spiral out of control into a frenzy of betrayal, lies, sex, and regaining painful memories that seem to advance the story on who really is in charge of this whole set up. For the most part, it seems that Dr. Lamb is in charge as she is the one conducting the therapy sessions with everyone, and things get a bit comical when Francis' thugs are hypnotized in a therapy session, which is to showcase their biggest fears. Dawson's performance of Dr. Lamb might be her greatest role to date as she exudes so much confidence and commands a very powerful performance, that we fall under her spell and are never cured.McAvoy turns in some brilliant work as does Cassel in their very flawed but emotional characters. Particularly Cassel, as at first he seems to be just a basic criminal out for money, but there is more to him than just greed, and we really sympathize with him. And that is what Boyle does so well here. He captures the very human side of an epic crime, one of which we are thrown into a maze of deceit and blood, to which we may never come out of. The camera tricks and use of stylized colors here make every character pop and show their very different sides and motivations from Dawson's full frontal nude scene to McAvoy's descent into madness.There has never been a heist movie told quite like this before, and even though we might not know what the hell is going on until the final moments of the film, it's a gut wrenching visceral experience. One that you won't soon forget.